280 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



of their surfaces by the sea in stormy weather, to the other small 

 uninhabited cays where the waves have thrown up more or less 

 extensive tracts of low-lying land fronted by beaches around a nucleus 

 of seolian sandstone. Here the strand plants that mainly stock these 

 small cays find congenial conditions on the sandy tracts behind the 

 beaches as well as on the seolian rocks of the higher levels. The 

 cays concerned include Eastern Cay, Greater Sand Cay, and Gibb 

 Cay, with Round Cay adjacent to it. Both as regards the stage in the 

 history of island formation and as concerns the conditions for plant 

 growth, they present an intermediate state between the small rocky 

 cays above described and the large inhabited islands to be sub- 

 sequently noticed. Here, as in Eastern Cay, the Turk's-head Cactus 

 (Melocactus communis), first appears, which is, or was, more at home 

 in the large islands. Here also, as in Gibb Cay, are found plants, 

 like the Burnt-bush (Euphorbia vaginulata) and Phyllanthus, that 

 abound on the large cays, as on Grand Turk. 



Eastern Cay, as delineated in the chart, is about 1800 yards 

 long and has a maximum breadth of nearly 800 yards. On its north- 

 west side there is a broad sandy plain elevated a few feet above the 

 sea and running back between 400 and 500 yards to a stony ridge, 

 which attains an elevation of ninety-six feet and forms the backbone 

 of the island. Near the ridge the sandy plain gradually rises until 

 it reaches half-way up its slopes. Characteristic littoral plants 

 such as Tournefortia gnaphalodes, Euphorbia buxifolia, Ipomoza 

 pes-capras, Sesuvium portulacastrum, Portulaca oleracea, and Borrichia 

 arborescens grow at the border of the sandy beaches and on the ground 

 in their rear on both sides of the island. Apart from the plants 

 growing on the beaches the three most conspicuous features of the 

 vegetation of the island are (1) the abundance of Ambrosia crithmifolia 

 which covers the sandy plains and the lower sandy slopes on both 

 sides of the island with a dense carpet, (2) the frequency of Borrichia 

 arborescens which mainly occupies the upper stony slopes, (3) the 

 prevalence of the Turk's-head Cactus (Melocactus communis), which, 

 though growing on the lower sandy slopes is most abundant in the 

 higher part of the island. 



Corchorus hirsutus is also common on the lower levels, growing 

 semi-prostrate on the sandy plains and associated in places with 

 Sesuvium. I noticed two or three fair-sized colonies of Ipomcea 

 tuba on the stony ground fifty or sixty feet above the sea. Cactuses 

 of the Opuntia type are common in the island, especially at and near 

 the summit. During my two visits I failed to find either Suriana 

 maritima or Genipa clusiifolia or Sccevola plumieri. 



Gibb Cay, which is about 700 yards long, 200 yards broad, and 

 about sixty feet high, is almost surrounded by beaches, and has sand 

 strewn nearly all over its surface. Much of this sand is evidently 

 derived from the disintegration of the seolian sandstone which is more 

 friable than usual. The beach plants, which include Tournefortia 

 gnaphalodes, Sccevola plumieri, Suriana maritima, Conocarpus erectus, 

 Euphorbia buxifolia, Sesuvium portulacastrum, Ipomcea pes-caprm, 

 and the tall reed-grass, Uniola paniculata, extend with the usual 

 exception of the first named some distance up the slopes and reach 



