INSULAR FLORAS. 387 



a large temperate element in the Cape Verd Islands, con- 

 sidering their tropical situation, and a subtropical element in 

 the Canaries, there is hardly that homogeneity throughout 

 to warrant the conclusion that they are actually separated 

 fragments of one and the same flora, as distinguished from 

 the flora of the nearest continental regions. It is true that, 

 taking the Canaries as the centre, and the north and south 

 groups as outliers, there are very evident connections, which 

 Dr. Christ finds even " really surprising " in the case of the 

 Cape Verd and Canaries ; but before entering into details 

 of this part of the question it may be well to give some 

 of Dr. Christ's facts and conclusions. It should be re- 

 membered that the Canaries are the nearest to the continent 

 of the four groups of islands or archipelagos — Azores, 

 Madeira, Canaries, and Cape Verd ; and the islands Lanza- 

 rote and Fuertaventura are much nearer than the rest of the 

 Canary group, being only about 1 ' distant. The peculiar 

 element in the flora of the latter being comparatively small, 

 Dr. Christ would prefer designating them continental in 

 contradistinction to the five western essentially oceanic 

 islands. But this is an unnecessary and untenable dis- 

 tinction, for after all none of these islands are oceanic in the 

 sense that St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha, Amsterdam, Rod- 

 rigues, the Galapagos, and the Sandwich Islands are. 

 Nor is the endemic element of the same pronounced 

 character as in most of the islands named, being more com- 

 parable to the differences existing in some continental areas, 

 in places no more distant from each other than the Canary 

 Islands are from each other and the mainland. Confining 

 ourselves to the African flora, a more strongly marked 

 differentiation will be found to exist in South Africa, within 

 an area extending over four or five degrees of longitude or 

 latitude. Indeed, a great deal too much has been made of 

 the assumed extreme differentiation exhibited by insular 

 floras as opposed to continental floras. Even the distinctive 

 habit of the succulents and the half-shrubby plants that 

 replace the truly herbaceous element in more humid climates, 

 on which considerable stress is laid by Dr. Christ, is not 

 greater than in South Africa. 



Returning to the flora of the Canaries, Dr. Christ dis- 



