532 
Taylor . — Endemism in the Bahama Flora . 
sea-water in several islands), and the saline soil conditions in many others 
are reflected in a generally depressed vegetation with many adjustments to 
prevent transpiration. A field study of the origin and distribution of the 
flora of Inagua and some of the limiting factors would throw much light on 
this problem. The study of the records of £ The Bahama Flora ’ shows 
Inagua to be higher in endemic species than any other island in the 
archipelago. It is the largest land mass of any of the isolated islands, and 
there is in the interior of it a good-sized salt lake and savannah region. 
These combinations of special conditions, reflected in its flora as they are 
known to be, make it worth additional field study. 
Summary. 
Endemism 4 on it, and in fact throughout the archipelago, appears to be 
the response of vegetation to these peculiar conditions of soil, lack of rainfall 
for a region only 70 miles from the rain-forest of northern Cuba and Haiti, 
regular and rather strong trade winds, punctuated by violent hurricanes in 
the opposite direction, and by certain other factors. In Inagua, more than 
anywhere else in the archipelagb, the sum of these factors has produced 
endemic species. As has been shown, the distribution and growth form 
of these endemic species does not differ materially from the non- 
endemic ones. 
The comparatively short time in which this endemic flora must have 
been developed, its method of transportal from island to island or from the 
mainland, these and other matters regarding the distribution of the Bahama 
endemics need further field study. Such a study should include Inagua for 
reasons that need not be repeated here. 
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 
Brooklyn, N.Y. 
Literature. 
Agassiz, A. (1894) : Reconnaissance of the Bahama Islands. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Harvard 
Coll., xxvi. 1-203. 
Geographical Society of Baltimore (1905) : The Bahama Islands, pp. 1-630. 
Sinnott, E. W. (1917) : The * Age and Area ’ Hypothesis and the Problem of Endemism. • Ann. 
Bot., xxxi. 210-16. 
, and Bailey, T. W. (1914): The Origin and Dispersal of Herbaceous Angio- 
sperms. Ibid., xxviii. 547-600. 
Taylor, N. (1916) : Endemism in the Flora of the Vicinity of New York. Torreya, xvi. 18-27. 
Willis, J. C. (1915) : The Endemic Flora of Ceylon, with Reference to Geographical Distribution 
and Evolution in general. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., Series B, ccvi. 307-42. 
(1916) : The Evolution of Species in Ceylon, with Reference to the Dying Out of 
Species. Ann. Bot., xxx. 1-23. 
(1917) : The Relative Age of Endemic Species and other Controversial Points. Ibid., 
xxxi. 189-208. 
