106 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



Coming to the vegetation of the banks of the Black River, as it 

 winds through the Great Morass above the mangrove, the most 

 conspicuous feature is presented by the trees that line its sides in 

 places. This subject is dealt with at length in Chapter I., when dis- 

 cussing the Black River as a source of drift, and I must refer the 

 reader to that description for an account of a character of the 

 Great Morass that was probably much more pronounced before the 

 arrival of the white man. 



(c) The Plants of the Mangrove Formation. — The mangroves of the 

 Black River district are mostly confined to the lower part of the estuary 

 and to the part of the Great Morass that lies nearest to the sea. 

 Whether in the swamps or at the riverside, they do not usually 

 extend more than two or three miles inland. In both cases they 

 present the same arrangement, the belt of Rhizophora mangle at the 

 water-front being backed by a growth of Laguncularia racemosa and 

 Avicennia nitida. In localities near the coast Bails maritima and 

 Salicornia flourish on the mud beneath the mangroves. An account 

 of my observations on Rhizophora mangle in this district will be found 

 on an earlier page of this chapter. 



The Savanna-la-mar District of Jamaica. — This region in- 

 cludes the Great Morass of Westmoreland, where most of the features 

 of the Black River Morass are reproduced. I will here give the 

 results of observations made during my sojourn of a week or two in 

 the district. One of the most instructive journeys through the low- 

 lying, swampy regions of Jamaica may be made from Savanna-la- 

 mar to Negril, a traverse of fifteen or sixteen English miles. For the 

 first third of the distance, where the mangrove-lined creeks run in 

 far from the coast, one's attention is mainly occupied with the inland 

 extension of Rhizophora, Laguncularia, and Avicennia, and with the 

 large tracts of muddy ground exclusively occupied by Batis maritima. 

 In the middle third we have left the salt-water swamps behind, and 

 now traverse a region of fresh- water swamp much like that of the 

 Great Morass of the Black River district. Here nourish Sabal 

 umbraculifera, Typha angustifolia, Sagittaria lancifolia, Cyperacece, 

 and others of the Black River marsh plants. In the last third we 

 encounter the characteristic vegetation of the lower hills, with 

 Grias cauliflora growing at the sides of the streams, but we meet 

 the mangroves again on approaching Negril. Britton, who com- 

 pares the Great Morass of Westmoreland with the Everglades of 

 Florida, noted the presence here of Crudya spicata (Harshberger's 

 Phyt. Surv. N. Amer., p. 678), which, as observed in the first chapter, 

 is a riverside tree in the Black River Morass. 



Among the small rivers that discharge into the sea near Savanna- 

 la-mar is the Cabarita. Here the mangroves, chiefly represented by 

 Rhizophora mangle, ascend the stream for about a mile from the sea, 

 being associated with Grias cauliflora at their upper limit. In the 

 swampy land bordering the river, where the mangroves fail, flourish 

 Typha angustifolia, Cyperus elatus (a tall, papyrus-like sedge), and 

 Arundo saccharoides ; whilst Coix lachryma sometimes covers large 

 surfaces of wet ground. The banks displayed more than one species 

 of Polygonum, including P. glabrum, and a species of Commelyna was 



