Taylor. — Endemism in the Bahama Flora. 525 
are almost painfully new and have but one endemic genus, the rest of the 
J32 endemics should be overwhelmingly herbaceous. How far short they 
come of being so is shown below. 
Percentages of Woody and Herbaceous Species in the ■ Non-endemic and 
* Endemic Elements of the Bahama Flora. 
Woody. Herbaceous. Parasites. 
Endemic species . . . . 57-5 39*3 2-2 
Non-endemic species . . . 39-5 59*3 1-2 
The endemic element of the Bahama flora is thus seen neither to fit 
into the ‘ Age and Area 5 theory of Willis, nor to accord with the theories 
of Sinnott and Bailey. They have argued that endemism is a criterion of 
antiquity, particularly where that endemism is generic, when it is sure to be 
represented mostly by woody species. With only a single endemic genus 
and on notoriously youthful islands, 57-5 per cent, of the Bahama endemics 
are woody ! In other words, during the time that these endemic species 
have been developing, considerably more woody plants have arisen than 
herbs, notwithstanding that in the total non-endemic flora, from which they 
sprang, the above percentages are reversed. 
Recording the failure of Bahama endemics to support the contention 
as to ‘Age and Area’ or that of ‘endemism as a criterion of antiquity’, 
apparently puts upon us the burden of accounting for the unquestioned 
facts of their distribution in some other way. The islands have been so 
thoroughly explored by the authors of ‘ The Bahama Flora ’ and their 
associates that what follows regarding the dispersal of the endemic plants 
of the archipelago may be accepted with greater certainty than is usually 
possible in such cases. 
Origin and Distribution of Bahama Endemics. 
( a ) The Physical Features of the Islands and their Bearing upon 
the Flora. 
The dispersal of the wild plants over the archipelago has first of all been 
affected by the structure of the islands. As the accompanying map (p. 531) 
shows, there are really three groups of islands : {a) those that outcrop from 
the Little Bahama Bank, the larger of which are the islands of Great 
Bahama and Abaco ; (b) those that outcrop from the Great Bahama Bank, 
notably New Providence, Eleuthera, Cat, Great Exuma, Long, and Andros 
islands ; (c) a group of scattered and isolated islands, the chief of which 
are Watlings, Crooked, Acklin, Mariguana, Inagua, Caicos, and Turks islands. 
The outstanding fact about these three groups of islands is that those on 
the Little Bahama Bank have several times been connected among them- 
selves, for the water on the bank is scarcely 20 feet deep, and evidence of 
M m 
