JOHNSTON: FLORA OF MARGARITA ISLAND. 299 
Close to the mainland but yet not considered one of the Venezuelan 
Islands is Trinidad lying to the northeast of Venezuela. In general 
the flora and vegetative conditions of the island are similar to those 
of the mainland. There is a large collection of well identified plants 
at the St. Clair experiment station at Port-of-Spain and I had the 
opportunity of comparing my first collection with them. From this I 
found that one hundred and seventy-nine Margaritan plants were not 
in the Trinidad herbarium and one hundred and sixty-one were there. 
Unfortunately it has been impossible for me to compare the remainder 
of my plants. Of those plants that were not in the Herbarium the 
majority were of wide distribution. Of the plants of restricted 
distribution, however, the greater number were Venezuelan rather 
than pertaining to the West Indies. 
Trinidad presents a distinct contrast in the appearance of its vegeta- 
tion to that of the islands of the north coast. The latter are dry as 
is the adjacent coast. ‘Trinidad, however, resembles and is really a 
part of the east coast, characterized by low land, well watered, and 
heavily wooded. Thus appears the east coast of Venezuela and of 
British Guiana, green with luxuriant vegetation, broken here and 
there, to be sure, with sandy stretches and low hills, but in effect with 
a truly tropical verdure. ‘Trinidad has a series of hills across the low 
end of the island and a range of low mountains across the northern 
end. The regions about these hills are in many places heavily covered 
with forests. Across the middle of the island is a belt of almost 
unbroken savannah land much used for grazing and for cane crops. 
Both on the eastern and on the western side are extensive swamp 
lands. Only in isolated and restricted areas are there any arid dis- 
tricts at all resembling those of Margarita. 
The entire chain of small islands extending from Trinidad north- 
ward is with few and unimportant exceptions similar in vegetative 
conditions to Trinidad. For the most part they consist of well culti- 
vated plains and green-clad hills and mountains. Porto Rico at the 
northern end of this chain of islands and the easternmost of the Great 
Antilles presents features somewhat different. With the exception 
of a narrow plain about the island, the surface of Porto Rico is un- 
dulating and broken into sharp hills and ridges from one end to the 
other. In marked contrast to Trinidad, Porto Rico has very little 
forest land and only a few small savannahs. Moreover, the waste 
lands, barren or cactus-covered, along the south shore are comparable 
