210 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
into the Pacific Ocean, and that wherever in Bolivia, Peru and 
Chile we find groups of Bulimuli, the land on which they live 
represents some portion or fragment of that ancient land 
which once occupied part of the eastern Pacific Ocean. If we 
had no other data in support of such theories, they would be 
based on very slender evidence. But all this will be more 
amply discussed when we come to deal with the general fauna 
of the Galapagos Islands and western South America. 
The only other point bearing on the westward extension of 
the ancient “Antillea,” as the supposed West Indian continent 
has been called, is the singular occurrence here and there 
of traces indicating land westward of California. Along the 
coast of southern California lies a little cluster of eight islands 
which have lately attracted the attention of naturalists. 
Now, as Mr. Greene informs us, on Santa Catalina Island 
may be found Crossosoma, a plant so peculiar as almost to 
represent a distinct natural order, and more closely related 
to the Asiatic and Australian Dilleniaceae than to any plant 
on the American Continent, except a single congener recently 
discovered in south-eastern California. Speaking of Santa 
Cruz, another of this group of small islands, he comments on 
its unique feature in possessing no less than forty-eight 
species of plants not found on the opposite mainland and 
expresses the opinion that the whole set of islands must have 
a very peculiar geological origin and history. Species belong¬ 
ing to distinctly Californian genera, like Dendromecon, Esch- 
scholtzia, Thysanocarpus and Zauschneria, abound in such 
numbers as to suggest the question whether it was no't from 
these islands that the mainland plants of the same genera 
were derived. The remarkable fact that Lyonothamnus, 
Hazardia and the Lavaferas, all of which have Asiatic or 
Australian affinities, occur on these islands in several distinct 
species, being quite unknown on the American continent, 
makes Mr. Greene* wonder whether this group of islands 
has not formerly been connected by land with some other 
continent than America. 
Surprising and apparently inexplicable as this feature may 
seem, California and south-western North America generally 
* Greene, E. L., “ Botany of Santa Cruz Island,” pp. 377—3S8. 
