288 PLANTS, SEEDS, AND CURRENTS 



plants, most of which the writer was familiar with in the West Indies 

 and in other parts of the tropics. The question of endemism is not 

 here raised, as all of them occur outside the Bahamian area. But 

 two points require a preliminary notice. In the first place, as already 

 remarked, a number of the plants have largely deserted the beach, 

 though they are typical shore species in other regions. In the 

 second place, the littoral flora often receives accessions from the 

 scrub of the interior. The shore plants that are rare on the beach 

 and are found thriving in the scrub of the interior are Coccoloba 

 uvifera, Dodoncea viscosa, Guilandina bonducella, and Sophora 

 tomentosa, and to these may be added Thespesia populnea, as it grows 

 around the North Wells. When they appear at the beach-border 

 it is only as representatives of the seaward extension of the plants 

 of the plains and of the hill-slopes. Of the characteristic plants 

 of the interior that at times establish themselves on the beach, 

 Euphorbia vaginulata, the Burnt-bush, is the most conspicuous. 

 But amongst the other plants of the scrub of the inland plains that 

 are not infrequently to be observed mingled with the true beach 

 plants on the sandy tracts that lie in the rear of the beach are Borrera 

 thymifolia, Lantana involucrata, and Phyllanthus epiphyllanthus. 

 Whether the typical shore plant penetrates into the plains or whether 

 the characteristic plant of the inland scrub intrudes on the beach, 

 it is merely a matter of xerophytes seeking another suitable station. 

 The influences that tend to keep apart the xerophytes of the plains 

 and the xerophytes of the beach are concerned rather with the plant's 

 capacity for dispersal than with differences in station. 



The beach that extends for miles along the eastern border of the 

 island affords excellent opportunities for the study of the arrange- 

 ment of the strand plants. A sandy, dune-like tract, usually about 

 fifty yards in breadth, separates it as a rule from the line of bluffs 

 of seolian sandstone that runs along the length of Grand Turk. At 

 times, however, the bluffs advance to the beach-margin ; and again, 

 as in the south, they may recede 100 yards or more inland. Al- 

 though it is often easy to detect a method in the arrangement of 

 the plants of the beach and of the dune-belt behind, the plants 

 mingle together as one approaches the bluffs, and at the foot of these 

 cliffs they grow side by side with the scrub plants of the inland plains. 



Walking inshore from the high-water level we first meet with 

 Ipomcea pes-caprce and Sesuvium portulacastrum, which soon give 

 place to clumps of Euphorbia buxifolia and Cakile lanceolata. A few 

 paces back, where the beach proper joins the duny sand tract, we 

 notice that the foremost mounds are held by the silver-grey shrubs 

 of Tournefortia gnaphalodes and the bright-green plants of Scmvola 

 plumieri. Dark clumps of Suriana maritima with its broom-like 

 habit cover the mounds behind, and the ground we tread upon is 

 carpeted with Ambrosia crithmifolia. Such is the usual order in 

 which the plants present themselves as we walk in from the beach; 

 but they all mingle together as we cross the rolling, sandy tract 

 towards the inland bluffs, at the foot of which they intermingle 

 with the scrub vegetation of the interior as before described, and 

 make but scanty efforts to ascend the sandy and rocky slopes. 



