8 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



by the bottle-drift data, to be dealt with in a later chapter, most of 

 the vegetable drift carried by this current would be borne across the 

 Caribbean Sea in the direction of the coasts of Honduras. The 

 materials that escaped being stranded on the shores of Central 

 America or on the south coast of Jamaica, on the Cayman Islands, 

 and on the south-west shores of Cuba, would be carried through the 

 Straits of Yucatan into the Gulf of Mexico, some portion being 

 beached on the shores of that gulf, the remainder ultimately reaching 

 the Straits of Florida. 



Reference will subsequently be made to several bottles that have 

 accomplished this passage in part, and to others that have done so 

 in its entirety. Occasionally one of them stranded on the beach tells 

 the story of the seed-drift lying around it. Thus, a bottle from Ceara 

 on the north coast of Brazil, which Mr. Savage English mentions as 

 cast up on Grand Cayman, clearly demonstrates the part played 

 by the Equatorial Current in carrying drift to the Cayman Islands. 

 " The quantity of living seed afloat at this western end of the Carib- 

 bean Sea " (thus he writes in the Kew Bulletin, 1913) " must be 

 immense, for it is hardly possible to examine more than a few feet of 

 the windward beaches of Grand Cayman without finding a seed of 

 some sort ; leguminous, probably, if it is not one from a Manicaria 

 palm, though there are plenty of others." 



The Mode of Distribution of Orinoco and Amazon Drift. — 

 Although the main track of the Orinoco and Amazon drift is chiefly 

 restricted to the southern part of the West Indian region, any differ- 

 entiation that the Equatorial Current might effect in the distribution 

 of littoral plants, as it pursues its westerly course across the Caribbean 

 Sea, would be obliterated by time. The usual variation of the winds 

 between north-east and south-east would often bring about the 

 deflection of the floating drift ; and we get cases like that of Jamaica, 

 which receives some of the drift brought by the Equatorial Current 

 on its southern shores and a quantity of Cuban and Haitian drift 

 on its northern coasts during the prevalent north-easterly winds. 

 Over most of the West Indian region outside the direct influence of 

 the Equatorial Current there is a prevailing north-westerly and 

 westerly set of the surface waters ; and it is in this manner that the 

 beaches of the Turks Islands are often piled up with drift from San 

 Domingo, Porto Rico, and the Leeward Islands. 



The Turks Islands and their Suitability for the Study of 

 Seed-drift. — Though the prevailing winds in the Turks Islands are 

 easterly, north-westerly winds occur at times in the winter months 

 when different climatic conditions reign and the routine of the year 

 is reversed for man, beast, and plant. The lee or protected sides of 

 the islands for the greater portion of the twelve months now become 

 the weather sides. At such times, when the sea breaks heavily on 

 the shores, steamers cannot land either passengers or cargo, and 

 proceed on their course to Haiti or Jamaica, or run for protection to 

 the " Hawk's Nest," the name of the anchorage off the southern 

 extremity of Grand Turk. Boats cannot ply between the islands, 

 and communication is interrupted for days together when the weather 

 is bad. Small craft accustomed to beat back from the islands to 



