284 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



of them exist on the adjacent islands of the Caicos Group and of 

 the two Inaguas; and I should imagine that the south-eastern 

 extremity of the Bahamian archipelago, consisting of the Turks, 

 Caicos, and Inagua islands, will prove to be a subdivision of the 

 floral region of the Bahamas. For years botanists from the United 

 States have worked this region, and an authoritative discussion 

 from the pens of Britton, Millspaugh, and others is to be expected, 

 if it has not already been published. 



Generally speaking the flora of Grand Turk may be regarded as 

 displaying a Bahamian impress in its interior and a West Indian 

 impress at the coast. In other words, we can distinguish between 

 the inland plants that give character to the larger islands of the group 

 as a part of the Bahamian floral region and the strand plants, often 

 monopolising the smaller cays, that are not only widely spread in 

 the tropics of the New World, but are in not a few cases dispersed 

 over the shores of the warm regions of the globe. Whilst the system- 

 atist will be mainly attracted by the Bahamian facies and by the 

 more specialised local features of the flora, the student of dispersal 

 will be mainly interested in the plants of the strand. If the group 

 consisted only of the small wind-swept and sea-swept cays a few 

 hundred yards in length, its flora would have been almost entirely 

 littoral and its general facies would be West Indian. It is the non- 

 littoral vegetation of a large cay like Grand Turk that gives it its 

 Bahamian impress and its still more localised characteristics. 



The topography of Grand Turk is also described in the chapter 

 on the geology of the group. Here I will deal with it afresh, since it 

 is necessary to bring into prominence features of more special interest 

 in connection with the flora. The island is about five-and-a-half 

 miles long and one to one-and-a-half miles broad, and attains a 

 maximum height of about seventy- five feet. But much of its area, 

 especially in the southern half, is raised only a few feet above the 

 sea; and there are extensive portions below the sea-level that are 

 occupied by the salt-ponds and the creeks which represent lagoons 

 that once penetrated to the heart of the island. 



Two creeks communicating with the sea penetrate the north and 

 south portions of the island. Both of them were doubtless at one 

 time well lined by mangroves, which, however, have been largely 

 cleared away from the North Creek, whilst in the South Creek they 

 are still well displayed. North Creek, though nearly silted up at 

 its mouth, is a clear sheet of water, about one-and-three-quarter 

 miles long and 600 yards wide. South Creek is much smaller ; but 

 doubtless it originally extended much farther into the island, as 

 indicated by the " Great Salina " and other salt-ponds which reach 

 to the centre of the island's length. The dams and other works 

 carried out in connection with the salt industry have greatly changed 

 the surface- conditions of the central part of Grand Turk; but it 

 seems probable that originally South Creek extended as a chain 

 of lagoons to the Town Pond in the middle of the island, and that 

 the two creeks were only separated at their heads by a neck, not 

 over a quarter of a mile broad, which is now represented by the 

 low ridge dividing the Town Pond from the head of North Creek. 



