210 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



region. The origin of the name is obscure, and it promises to remain 

 in obscurity, since Catesby, who was in these islands about 1725, 

 remarks in his work on the natural history of this region (I., 59) : 

 " I know not for what Reason the Inhabitants of the Bahama Islands 

 call it the Seven Years Apple." In this connection it should be noted 

 that in January and February 1911, during my sojourn in the Turks 

 Islands, it was in flower and unripe fruit. Catesby states that it 

 ripens its fruit in seven or eight months. One may notice that the 

 name of "Seven-year Vine" is according to Grisebach applied in 

 the West Indies to Ipomoea tuberosa, a widely distributed plant with 

 an inedible tuber, dealt with in Chapter VI. 



I found Genipa clusiifolia growing on four of the ten islands of the 

 Turks Group, namely, Grand Turk, Long Cay, Cotton Cay, and 

 Greater Sand Cay. On Grand Turk individual plants grew amongst 

 the rock masses at the foot of the bluff that rises in the rear of the 

 broad beach at the southern extremity of the island. It also grew 

 on rocky ground in the interior of the island in different localities, 

 as on the low hills around the North Wells; but I never noticed it 

 growing in colonies, as in some of the smaller cays. It composed 

 great thickets on the rocky surface of Long Cay on the lee or south- 

 west side, being associated with Coccoloba uvifera ; and it extended 

 to the edge of the low cliffs that form the border of the island. On 

 the eastern or weather end of Cotton Cay a few plants were associated 

 under similar soil conditions with dense thickets of Coccoloba uvifera 

 and a quantity of Phyllanthus falcatus. It occurred probably on 

 other parts of this island. On Greater Sand Cay it was one of the 

 most characteristic plants, especially in the northern half, growing 

 in colonies over the sandy and rocky surface, but not coming down 

 to the beaches. In all these localities the plant in the early part of 

 1911 was in flower and unripe fruit, the fruiting stage being most 

 pronounced. 



This plant is truly littoral in its station. In Cuba, as remarked 

 by Grisebach, it grows on maritime rocks. Millspaugh writes that 

 it occurred on coastal rocks on all the Bahamian islands visited 

 (Pramunc. Baham.). Harshberger includes it in the Bahamian 

 strand formation, assigning it a station not only on the coastal 

 rocks, but also on the sandy ridges and mounds behind the Tourne- 

 fortia-Suriana association. He writes that it is an element of the 

 sandy strand formaton of South Florida (Trans. Wagner Inst. Phila- 

 delphia, Oct. 1914, p. 70; Phyt. Surv. N. America, pp. 690, 692). 



The fruit is an egg-shaped berry, 2 J to 3 inches long, yellowish and 

 hard in the unripe condition, but reddening as it approaches maturity. 

 When ripe, as Catesby tells us, it is pulpy and has the consistence of 

 a mellow pear. (The fruits at the time of my visit to the Turks 

 Islands were full-sized, but still hard.) It possesses a thick rind 

 and a large number of dark-brown, flat crustaceous seeds, one-fifth of 

 an inch (5 mm.) long and lying horizontally in a relatively scanty 

 pulp. It is a curious fact that I never observed either withered 

 fruits on the plant or fallen fruits on the ground. It is probable 

 that they are much appreciated by the large iguanas found on some 

 of the cays ; and it is noteworthy that the two islands most frequented 



