296 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
most eastern of all those along the northern coast of Venezuela. The 
other islands to be considered are Testigos, Blanquilla, Orchilla, 
Los Aves, Los Roques, Cubagua, Tortuga, Aruba, Buen Ayre, and 
Cura9oa, the respective positions of which may be seen by referring 
to the accompanying map of the Carribean Sea and its surrounding 
lands (PI. 23). All of these islands are identical in topogra{)hical 
features with the plains and hills of Margarita. 
Of this group Cubagua is eight and one half kilometers (5.25 mi.) 
from jNIargarita and twice the distance from Coche, of which it is 
almost a counterpart in size and physical characteristics. No botani- 
cal research has been made upon it, though I have passed very near 
the shore several times and have observed that it has the same barren 
features that Coche possesses. There is no water on the island and 
never has been any within historical time, and though in the early 
sixteenth century it was the site of a thriving city of Sjianish pearl- 
fishers, at present there may be seen only a few fishers' huts. 
The next nearest island is La Tortuga, ninety kilometers (60 mi.) 
from Margarita and the same distance from the coast of Venezuela. 
The island is twenty kilometers (12 mi.) from east to west and ten 
kilometers (6 mi.) from north to south. It is merely a raised coral 
reef and presents the appearance of a low waste of land with an al- 
most level surface and a very narrow beach. The vegetation as re- 
ported by Ernst consists of sixty-nine different species of plants largely 
common to American tropics of which, however, twenty-three are not 
to be found on Margarita. 
The islands Los Aves, Testigos, and Blanquilla, so far as is known, 
have never been visited by a botanist. Los Aves consists of a number 
of small rocky and barren islets midway between Buen Ayre and 
Los Roques. They have been noted solely as a source of guano. The 
vegetation would naturally be very scanty. Testigos is a small group 
eighty kilometers (50 mi.) north of Margarita; and Blanquilla which 
is somewhat larger, being twenty-five kilometers in circumference, 
is seventy kilometers north of Margarita. Though there are no 
recorded visits to these islands, the flora may be assumed to be very 
scanty and to consist for the most part of cosmopolitan seashore 
plants. 
Los Roques is a group of islands one hundred and thirty kilometers 
(80 mi.) from the coast of Venezuela and consists of a dozen or more 
rocky islands none over a kilometer in length. The flora is entirely 
