FLORA OF GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 
311 
pagos flora possesses affinities with the highlands rather than 
the lowlands. 
In this brief account of the main features of the fauna and 
flora of the Galapagos archipelago I have endeavoured to state 
mainly the opinions of those who agree with the theory of 
elevation as propounded by Darwin. Some authorities formu¬ 
lated no decisive views on the subject. It is currently believed 
that the first criticism of this theory was brought forward by 
Professor Baur * in 1890, in a paper on the variation of the 
genus Tropidurus in the Galapagos islands. Although it was 
the first serious criticism, Mr. Andrew Murray f remarked 
much earlier that Darwin’s observations on the Galapagos 
fauna had led him to an entirely different conclusion. “ The 
American type of the whole group,” he says, “ speaks pri¬ 
marily of connection with the continent. The family facies 
of the group inter se, speaks of a period when the whole 
islands were separated from America, but united to each other. 
The endemic peculiarity of the species of each individual 
island tells of subsequent separation and change wrought 
in each, probably at the same time, by the alteration of climate 
from continental or terrestrial, to isolated and oceanic.” 
It was not until 1891, when a more popular account of 
Professor Baur’s views appeared in the “ American Natu¬ 
ralist,” that his opinions led to considerable discussion both 
in America and in Europe. It had seemed as if Darwin’s 
theory, supported as it was by Wallace, Hooker, Agassiz and 
many other naturalists of less note, was unassailable. Never¬ 
theless, Professor Baur’s careful reasoning induced many sub¬ 
sequent writers to adopt his views in preference to older 
ones. He urged with Dr. Wallace that all islands may be 
divided into Continental and Oceanic ones. The first have 
developed from continents or larger bodies of land through 
isolation or subsidence. The second have not been so formed, 
but have arisen from submarine portions of the earth by eleva¬ 
tion. He thought that the fauna and flora of the first group of 
islands would be more or less harmonic, that is to say, the 
islands would be like satellites of the continent from which 
they took their origin. The fauna and flora of the second 
* Baur, G., “ Yariieren der Eidechsen-Gattung Tropidurus.” 
t Murray, A., “ Distribution of Mammals,” p. 17. 
