MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 



185 



and eastern sea-borders of the North Atlantic in tropical and tem- 

 perate latitudes and including the West Indian and Caribbean 

 region ; but the genus on the eastern side of the ocean does not seem 

 to extend south of Madeira and North Morocco. A curious feature 

 of the distribution is that the genus is not represented by indigenous 

 species on the Pacific shores of the American continent. Harshberger 

 gives no locality on those coasts ; and Millspaugh regards the only 

 species which he locates on the Pacific side (C. edentula at Berkeley, 

 California) as introduced. 



The uncertainty about the limits of the species does not make my 

 task an easy one. I have made the acquaintance in their homes 

 with three of the species in four different regions, namely, in the 

 south of England, in the Azores, in the West Indies, and on the Pacific 

 Coast of North America. The West Indian species, with which I 

 was familiar in Jamaica and in the Turks Islands is Cakile cequalis 

 (L'Her.), which has been united by Schulz with two other species 

 (named after Cuba and San Domingo) in C. lanceolata. The fusion 

 somewhat extends the range of C. cequalis, which already had the 

 reputation of being the most characteristic and widest spread of 

 the Antillean species. Thus extended, the range covers the Greater 

 and Lesser Antilles, including the Bahamas and the Florida keys, 

 and reaches to the Bermudas. It comprises also the continental 

 coasts of the Mexican Gulf and the Caribbean Sea, past Yucatan to 

 Colombia. It is the species of the Turks Islands; but, except in 

 one island, it is there uncommon. I only noticed it on Greater 

 Sand Cay, where it was represented by a single clump, and on Grand 

 Turk, where it grows in abundance. Since it was found on Grand 

 Turk by Hjalmarsson in 1858, more than half a century before my 

 visit, it would seem that it has long since attained the limit of its 

 colonising powers in the Turks Islands, its scanty distribution over 

 the group being probably due to the havoc executed by the breakers 

 of those tempestuous seas on the shores of most of the islands. In 

 Jamaica I observed it on the north coast and west end of the island, 

 at White River, St. Anne's Bay, Dry Harbour, and Negril; but 

 localities on the south coast are given by Fawcett and Rendle. 



The species of the Azores is confined to one locality, Porto Pym 

 on Fayal. It is regarded by Millspaugh as introduced and as belong- 

 ing to Cakile edentula (Bigel.) ; but Trelease views it as referable 

 to C. americana (Nutt.). From Lowe's description of a common 

 species in Madeira under the name of C. maritima, it would seem to 

 be similar to the Azorean plant. Further particulars concerning this 

 matter will be found in Chapters XVII. and XIX. under the Azores. 

 The species observed by me in 1896 on the Golden Gate beach at 

 San Francisco was probably the same species that, as we learn from 

 Millspaugh, has been introduced into San Francisco Bay (C. edentula). 

 There seems to be no indigenous species on the Pacific coasts of the 

 New World ; and this disposes of the statement in my work on Plant 

 Dispersal (pp. 431, 432) that the genus is represented by indigenous 

 species on both sides of North America. My observations on Cakile 

 maritima, the common European species, are given in the work just 

 named. The few notes since made on the coasts of South Devon 



