502 



APPENDIX 



formed in 1906 a single patch a few feet across. The following notes 

 were made on it in that year. 



Jan. 17, in full leaf ; some stems bearing immature fruits. June 30, 

 beginning to flower. Aug. 31, flowering copiously, also in early fruit. 

 Oct. 5, foliage still abundant; in seed; but the nuts are soft and 

 whitish and the albumen is creamy and not set, whilst the fully 

 formed dark-green embryo seems almost escaping through the 

 delicate membranous fruit- covering. Nov. 9, abundant healthy 

 green foliage and abundant green fruit; the fruit still soft, but the 

 green embryo has grown at the expense of the creamy albumen, 

 though still within the fruit-coverings. 



Evidently the plant this year has been on the eve of vivipary. 

 The albumen never hardened and there was no rest period. Since 

 the plant appears to be most at home in the warmer climes of the 

 Mediterranean, it would almost seem that in the northern part of 

 its range it may endeavour to counteract the effects of colder climatic 

 conditions by dispensing with the rest period of the seed. From this 

 point of view the vivipary of the mangroves in the tropics might be 

 regarded as due to their endeavour to accommodate themselves to 

 climatic conditions cooler than those that once prevailed in those 

 regions. 



Note 39 (Chapter XI). 

 On recent observations in the Western Bahamas by Dr. Vaughan. 



The writer is deeply indebted to Dr. Vaughan of the U.S. Geo- 

 logical Survey for his great courtesy in sending him some of his 

 papers on the Bahamas and in replying to his numerous queries 

 on the subject ; but unfortunately his letter came too late to enable 

 its contents to be utilised in Chapter XI, which is concerned with 

 the geology of the Turks Islands. The remarks below refer to 

 points raised in that chapter under the pages indicated. 



The oolitic character of the grains of the O3olian formation or cal- 

 careous sandstone of the Bahamas (p. 260). — In the first place, 

 it should be noted that L. Agassiz, in his paper on the Salt Key 

 Bank, long since remarked the occurrence of oolitic grains in the 

 fine sand of the bank, which is covered by four or five fathoms of 

 water. Dr. Vaughan has watched the growth of oolitic grains in 

 the shoal-water muds of the Bahamian seas, muds that " only 

 need induration to become oolitic limestones." The precipitation 

 of the carbonate of lime is attributed to denitrifying bacteria, which, 

 as shown by Drew and Kellerman, exist in enormous quantities in 

 the surface ooze of the Florida and Bahamian shoals. These oolitic 

 grains ultimately form the beaches and the dunes and the more or 

 less compacted asolian rock. 



Comparison of the ceolian formation of the Bahamas and the 

 Bermudas (p. 273). — According to Dr. Vaughan, although both 

 are calcareous, the mechanical conditions of the Bermudian and 

 Bahamian formations are very different. Whilst in the first case 

 the deposits are composed of broken-up shells, tests of foraminifera, 

 and occasional coral fragments, in the second case through chemical 



