392 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



the vegetation of these islands, and an analysis of its com- 

 position and relationships. The principal feature in these 

 islands was, and is, the groves of date palms. Bolle regards 

 all the date palms of these islands as the true date of North 

 Africa, Phoenix dactylifera, and describes its occurrence in 

 the following words: " Ubiquitaria fere locis idoneis. Sylva 

 miranda, saharienses oases referens, in convalle Rio Palmas. 

 Num Phoenix canariensis, Recentiorum quoque in Purpura- 

 riis indigena sit, adhuc dubium." On the other hand, Christ 

 writes as though the common wild palm was the P. 

 canariensis (P. Jubce), and adds that the continental P. 

 dactylifera is extensively cultivated in the islands, where 

 it yields excellent fruit. It is now generally admitted that 

 the indigenous insular form is specifically distinct from the 

 continental one ; yet much uncertainty exists in the various 

 attempts at discriminating the two. 



Bolle's analysis of the flora shows an endemic element of 

 thirty-five species ; that is, peculiar to these two islands. 

 Fourteen of these are exceedingly local. He further dis- 

 tinguishes forty-six species as belonging to the character- 

 istic Canary type, and twenty-six to the Sahara type. His 

 catalogue comprises upwards of 400 species, including 

 colonists ; and Ononis Christii, Lotus erythrorhizus, and 

 Plantago Aschersonii are described as new. 



Mr. Krause's sketch of the flora of St. Vincent (38) af- 

 fords material for a comparison of the Cape Verd and Canary 

 floras. The Cape Verd Islands are upwards of 300 miles 

 from the mainland, and in St. Vincent there is a range of 

 hills culminating in the eastern part of the island, in the 

 Green Mountain, at an altitude of about 2500 feet, with 

 cultivation to the summit. There is, in a sense, a wet and 

 a dry season, but prolonged drought is not uncommon. Of 

 arboreous vegetation there is none, and the real shrubby 

 vegetation consists almost entirely of Pamarix senegalensis 

 and Euphorbia Tuckeyana ; the former, rarely ten feet high, 

 in thickets, on the coast and in the sandy valleys; the latter, 

 sometimes as much as six feet high, common and scattered 

 all over the island, from 200 feet upwards. 



Krause's list, compiled from all available sources besides 

 his own collection, comprises only 183 species of vascular 



