328 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
in most places in this vicinity, but short sand beaches occur occa¬ 
sionally. Th e country is covered with beds of rough basaltic 
lava and cinders all of which is very old and has become stained 
with a dark brown color. This lava has not become broken down 
to any extent, so consequently there is but little soil in this re¬ 
gion. The ascent is very gradual here so that it is necessary to 
go about four miles inland in order to reach the plateau region, 
which covers the central part of the island. The eastern part of 
this plateau has a general elevation of about 700 ft., but it slopes 
up gradually, towards the west, to the base of the mountain. 
There is more soil on the plateau than lower down, but it is 
mostly in low places so that the surface of the ground is usually 
strewn with lava fragments. Several old craters are located on 
the plateau at an elevation of 700 ft., all of which are low in al¬ 
titude. 
The sand beaches support many of the smaller plants which 
are usually found in such situations on these islands. Among 
these are: Batis maritima, Cryptocarpus pyriformis, Disearia 
pauciflora, and Sporobolus virginicus. Rhizophora Mangle is 
the only one of the mangroves that grows on the open coast at 
this place. It also grows to some extent around the shores of the 
salt water lagoon, mingled in places with Avicennia officinalis. 
In the vicinity of the shore, the country is covered in places with 
thickets of Disearia, and Maytenus bushes, but there are no 
trees except those of Opuntia myriacantha. There are a few 
specimens of Bursera, but they are mere bushes, and do not grow 
to the size of a tree for some distance inland. The crowns of the 
Bursera trees are usually much flattened, due to the action of 
the wind. There are quite a number of species of bushes farther 
inland, all of which grow from the crevices of the lava. Among 
these are: Alternanthera rigida, Cordia lutea, Croton Scouleri 
var. albescens, Euphorbia articulata, and Scalesia atractyloides. 
With the exception of the halophytes along the shore, the Scale¬ 
sia bushes were about the only plants that presented a green ap¬ 
pearance at the time of our visit. There were many other plants 
in leaf at this time, but the leaves were either small, or covered 
with a dense coating of hairs so that the green color was ob¬ 
scured. There are small stretches of lava near the shore on 
which there is practically no vegetation. 
The vegetation becomes more abundant between 100 and 200 
ft. elevation where there are extensive thickets of Lipochaeta 
