68 
THE PLANT WORLD. 
The climate is exceedingly dry for the greater part of the year, 
the rainy season lasting a few weeks only as a general thing. So 
free from rain is this region at times that for many years the 
production of salt by the evaporation of sea water was an ex¬ 
tensive industry. This, however, in late years has dwindled to 
but a small part of its former greatness, and comparatively little 
salt is produced. Not that the island is any less suited to the 
Fig. 19. View in the scrub. 
industry, but neighboring islands with an equally favorable cli¬ 
mate, and with the additional advantages of cable communica¬ 
tions and better facilities for transporting the salt from the 
ponds to the shore, have made great inroads on the salt produc¬ 
tion of Great Inagua. 
With this description of the country and its climate the reader 
will be better able to appreciate the plant formations and the 
conditions with which the vegetation must cope. While a care* 
