INSULAR FLORAS. 401 



are the huge branching Cacti. Unfortunately the author's 

 knowledge of botany was insufficient to enable him to describe 

 adequately what he saw. There are excellent maps accom- 

 panying this report. Concerning the origin of the fauna and 

 flora of the Galapagos, Agassiz vigorously attacksand ridicules 

 Baur's theory of subsidence, put forward with so much con- 

 fidence (28), and briefly stated thus: "My conclusion, therefore, 

 is, the Galapagos are continental islands originated through 

 subsidence. They all formed at a past period one large 

 island, and this island itself was at a still former period 

 in connection with the American continent." It will be 

 sufficient to have directed attention to the discussion here. 

 It is worth adding, however, that Baur's article is supple- 

 mented by an excellent bibliography. 



In the same publication Cocos and Malpelo Islands are 

 also represented by photographs and present a striking con- 

 trast to each other. The one is a cone, covered with vegeta- 

 tion from the sea to the summit ; the other a barren rocky 

 mass with steep, almost perpendicular, cliffs, recalling the 

 Island of St. Helena. It is a pity that arrangements were 

 not made to investigate thoroughly the fauna and flora of 

 Cocos Island; for although it was visited by many of the 

 early voyagers, such as Dampier, Vancouver, Anson and 

 Wafer, who each described it more or less fully, it has 

 rarely been touched by later expeditions, and by none, I 

 believe, for scientific purposes, since the visit of H.M.S. 

 Sulphur, upwards of fifty years ago. From all accounts, its 

 vegetation is totally different from that of the Galapagos, 

 being quite tropical in character and including a variety of 

 trees of large size, and tree-ferns as much as twenty feet high. 

 The Sulphur expedition brought home specimens of about 

 a dozen flowering plants, two-thirds of which were de- 

 scribed as new and peculiar to the island. The few plants 

 collected by Agassiz here and in the Galapagos are enu- 

 merated (25), but they contain nothing of interest. One, 

 Oxalis Agassizi, from the Galapagos, is described as new. 



Leaving the Galapagos for the distant southern Juan 

 Fernandez, or John Fernando, as some of the earlier 

 English navigators translated it, I have one most impor- 



