Taylor. — Endemism in the Bahama Flora. 529 
Bank and on the isolated southerly islands, while nearly 10 per cent, are 
found throughout the archipelago. That some of these have been dis- 
tributed by the hurricanes or by the Gulf Stream is more than likely. 
But a comparison of them shows that they are often in genera which 
are also represented by the southerly island endemics which have failed to 
be so distributed. 
While a fairly good case could doubtless be made out for parallel 
evolution as an explanation of similar endemics on geologically and 
edaphically similar but unconnected islands, proof of it is so far lacking. 
As suggested by Dr. Britton, the endemics of the Bahamas may be due to 
extreme isolation on certain islands which are very specialized by having 
peculiarly rocky and sterile soil, by the violence of the regular trade-wind 
which depresses the vegetation, and by the periodic hurricanes of most 
destructive force. If these factors have had any bearing upon the 
distribution of Bahamian endemics they should be better illustrated on the 
island of Inagua (including Little Inagua) than on almost any other. 
It is the largest land mass of any of those southerly islands that have 
always been isolated by the great depth of the sea. Upon it grow a greater 
proportion of endemic plants than on any other island in the archipelago — 
49, of which J3 are confined to it. Andros, which is thrice larger, has only 
5 endemics that are restricted to it, Long Island 4, and most of the rest of 
the islands one or no endemic peculiar to them. Inagua is thus seen 
to be not only abnormally rich in endemics, which comprise 21*4 per cent, 
of its recorded flora as against 14 per cent, for the whole archipelago, but it 
also has a higher proportion of endemics peculiar to it than any other 
island. Such a combination of circumstances warrants some special study 
of what these plants are. The list of endemics confined to Inagua or Little 
Inagua follows, together with some 
notes upon them. 
Number of Endemic 
Endemics confined io Inagua 
or Little Inagua . 
Species in the same 
Genus , but in other 
Parts of the 
Total Number of 
Species known from 
the Bahamas „ 
Archipelago. 
Dichromena inaguensis 
0 
2 
Agave Nashii 
7 
y 8 
Encyclia inaguensis 
1 
8 
Heliotropium Nashii 
4 
10 
Lantana balsamifera 
1 
6 
Nashia inaguensis 
0 
1 
Guettarda Taylori 
Gtiettarda Nashii 
[ 
0 
6 
Guettarda inaguensis \ 
Ernodea Taylori j 
1 
6 
Ernodea Nashii j 
2 
Borreria inaguensis 
5 
8 
Vernonia obcordata 
3 
5 
The ten genera in which these thirteen endemics peculiar to Inagua 
are found are distributed otherwise 
in the following way : 
