300 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
with the wastes of Margarita. This northern island is perhaps in a 
condition midway between that of the coast and coastal islands of 
Venezuela and that of Trinidad, the former being in a condition of 
drought and the latter in a state of excessive moisture for much of the 
year. In regard to the species of plants, there is of course a vast 
difference. Professor Urban's Flora Portoricensis is very complete 
so far as published. In it are sixty-one plants to be found on Marga- 
rita, although the author does not refer more than twenty-five to the 
island, these references being only from my first collection of plants. 
As many as this is naturally to be expected from the wide distribution 
of many of the plants. Moreover, there are fully five hundred plants 
of JNIargarita not to be found on Porto Rico, and of course many 
more on the much larger island not on Margarita. 
In the small Cayman Islands farther west in the region of the Great 
Antilles there is also a diversity from Margarita. These islands con- 
sist of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brae, two hun- 
dred and eighty-nine kilometers (180 mi.) northwest of Jamaica and 
about the same distance south of the center of Cuba. Grand Cayman 
is twenty-seven kilometers from east to west, six to eight wide at the 
eastern end and eleven to thirteen kilometers (7 to 8 mi.) wide at the 
western end. There is no elevation exceeding fifty meters (150 ft.). 
Some forest land is present, and in the center is considerable boggy 
soil suggesting the presence of sufficient moisture for much vegetative 
growth. Collections of plants have been made on the Caymans by 
Professor C. F. Millsjiaugh and by Mr. W. Fawcett. From the total 
of two hundred and twenty-eight species constituting these lists eighty- 
four are found on Margarita. Five hundred and eighty Margaritan 
plants are not found on the Caymans. This suggests a distinctly 
different flora notwithstanding the presence of so many plants of wide 
distribution. This difference can be accounted for partially in the 
vegetative conditions, but in the main it is due to geographical position, 
the Cayman Islands being some seventeen hundred kilometers north- 
west of Margarita. Moreover in comparing the flora of the Cayman 
with that of the other Venezuelan islands or with Trinidad the same 
result is obtained. 
It is impossible to make a definite comparison of the plants of 
Jamaica and Cuba with those of Margarita, for the lists are so incom- 
plete. It must suffice to say that from the material available for com- 
parison it is certain that a very large part of the plants of Jamaica and 
