258 Dr. J. D. Hooxer on the Vegetation 
From the above it appears, that of the species presumed to be introduced 
into the Galapagos through various agencies, about 40, or nearly so, have 
exalbuminous seeds ; and of the 50 albuminous-seeded ones, the majority have 
that substance dense or carnose; some farinaceous, but only two or three oily. 
These results agree to a considerable extent with what the gardener practically 
deduces, from the success or failure which attends the planting of seeds from 
foreign climes. The Leguminosce and Solanec, the very two orders the Gala- 
pagos' proportion of which shows so undue an amount of continental American 
species, are in miscellaneous collections of seeds, those which best retain their 
vitalitv during long voyages. 
III. The last feature in the Galapageian Flora to which I alluded is, that 
the several islets are tenanted for the most part by different plants ; this dif- 
ference between the Florule is as decided as that which exists between the 
botany of the whole coast and that of America, or even more so in proportion, 
if it be remembered how very similar the islets are in climate and geological 
structure, and how close to one another in geographical position. 
Were this peculiarity effected only by those species which may have come 
from the continent, it would have admitted of some explanation, so capricious 
are the elements which regulate the interchange of species, and so uncertain 
in their effects even when apparently most uniform in their action. But in this 
case, the difference is most marked in the distribution of the species that are 
Galapageian only, the individuals of which are not common to every part of the 
archipelago, but for the greater part confined each to one solitary islet; only 
13 of the 128 peculiar flowering plants and ferns having been found hitherto 
on two of the four whose Flora we know, two upon three of the islets, and but 
one upon all four. On the other hand, the amount of difference, though great 
numerically, is as regards its nature restricted within very narrow limits, 
the plants of one island being represented in others by similar though not 
identical species, producing a similarity in all general features combined with 
a difference in details. 
Such well-marked and at the same time very narrow limits to the disper- 
sion of nearly 130 species, is probably nowhere to be met with but amongst 
the Galapagos, and, wonderful though it must appear, it is still very much the 
accident of their birth-place ; it is in a great measure due to the want of means 
