JOHNSTON: FLORA OF MARGARITA ISLAND. 167 
In 1900, Captain ^Yirt Robinson and Dr. ]M. W. Lyon, Jr., collected 
at La Guaira, Macuto, and San Julian about sixty |)lants wliich are 
now in the U. S. national herbarium (see Jolniston, '08). 
Li 1901, with a party of three otliers I spent tlie months of July and 
August on the island of Margarita. About 300 species of plants 
were collected. On another trip to the same island in 1903, we 
increased the known flora of ^Margarita to 654 species. At the same 
time a collection was made on the island of Coche and visits were made 
to Carupano, Cumana, La Guaira, and Caracas to compare their 
floras. Again in 1907, I was enabled to visit Venezuela aUhough no 
collecting was done on Margarita. Visits to Pampatar on Margarita 
and to Carupano, Cumana, Barcelona, Guanta, La Guaira, Caracas, 
and Valencia on the mainland, all have been of value to me in com- 
paring the flora of Margarita with that of adjacent regions. 
It is believed that the above collections comprise all that have been 
made in Venezuela "wath the exception of a few by Venezuelans. In 
some cases the data are incomplete and unsatisfactory but they may 
nevertheless furnish a basis for further research work along this line. 
Flor.\ of the Island of Margarita. 
Introduction. 
The island of ^Margarita is only a small part of Venezuela, never- 
theless its flora has proved to be of considerable interest, particularly 
as revealing several ncAv species and as increasing the known geograplii- 
cal distribution of other species. The island was visited in 1873 by 
Dr. Adolphus Ernst who published a report of the plants discovered. 
Captain Wirt Robinson visited the island in 1898 making a collection 
of the birds and mammals. In 1901 a party of four students of Har- 
vard university consisting of Austin H. Clark, O. O. Miller, Walter P. 
Jenkins, and myself spent the months of July and August collecting 
specimens of animal and plant life. In 1903, through the kindness 
of one of the friends of the Gray herbarium of Harvard university, 
I was enabled to visit Margarita again. This time I was accompanied 
by Dr. Albert F. Blakeslee, who devoted himself to the collection of 
algae and fungi, and by Clifford W'ilson, who assisted us in our work. 
These visits to ^Margarita, which are all that have been reported 
of scientific workers, taken together furnish fairly complete data as to 
the character of the flora and its vegetative conditions. 
