INSULAR FLORAS. 3g7 



novelties discovered the only two members of the Cactaceae 

 (Mamillaria Goodrichii and Opuntia prolifera) known to 

 inhabit the island. Many interesting observations are em- 

 bodied in Mr. Greene's notes. One notable fact is the 

 presence of thousands of goats without " any perceptible 

 injurious effect on the vegetation ". Indeed, a small body 

 of Mexican soldiers was kept on the island to prevent free- 

 booters from continuing the destruction of the goats, as 

 ship-loads of goat-skins and tallow had previously been 

 exported in this way to San Diego. The disastrous effects 

 of the introduction of goats where there was scarcely any 

 herbaceous vegetation, as in St. Helena, is too well known ; 

 they ate the young seedlings and browsed on the shrubby 

 vegetation to an extent that soon made it impossible for 

 reproduction or propagation of any kind to proceed. It is 

 probable, however, that the goats are preventing the devel- 

 opement of young plants in the island of Guadeloupe ; for 

 Greene, who was ten years later than Palmer's first visit, 

 specially notes the rapid disappearance of the old trees with- 

 out any corresponding increase of young ones. It will be 

 sufficient to give references (18) to some of the more im- 

 portant of the numerous lists of plants collected in the Cali- 

 fornian Islands. Some of them, however, are much more 

 than lists, and contain facts of great value in phytogeo- 

 graphy. Thus Brandegee tabulates the 5 1 2 species of vas- 

 cular plants found in the five islands named. Only twenty- 

 six of this number had not at that date (1890) been found 

 on the mainland, and it was assumed that further explora- 

 tions would considerably reduce this apparently endemic 

 element. One peculiarity of the flora of this group of 

 islands is that it is more southern in character than the im- 

 mediately opposite part of the mainland, between 33° and 

 34 N. lat. Cedros Island, just outside of the Bay of San 

 Sebastian Viscaino, in about 2 8° lat., and about forty miles 

 from the mainland, though of extremely barren appearance, 

 has a very curious though meagre flora. It is very rugged, 

 of volcanic origin, with peaks rising to an altitude of 4000 feet ; 

 somewhat triangular in outline, and a little over twenty miles 

 in its greatest diameter. An exploring party visited the island 



