288 ISLAXD LIFE part it 



The total number of flowering plants known at the latter 

 date, was 332, of which 174 were peculiar to the islands, 

 while 158 were common to other countries.^ Of these 

 latter about twenty have been introduced by man, while 

 the remainder are all natives of some part of America, 

 though about a third part are species of wide range ex- 

 tending into both hemispheres. Of those confined to 

 America, forty-two are found in both the northern and 

 southern continents, twenty-one are confined to South 

 America, while twenty are found only in North America, 

 the West Indies, or Mexico. This equality of North 

 American and South American species in the Galapagos 

 is a fact of oTeat sioiiificance in connection with the 

 observation of Sir Joseph Hooker that the 'pcculiciQ^ species 

 are allied to the plants of temperate America or to those 

 of the high Andes, while the non-peculiar species are 

 mostly such as inhabit the hotter regions of the tropics 

 near the level of the sea. He also observes that the seeds 

 of this latter class of Galapagos plants often have special 

 means of transport, or belong to groups whose seeds are 

 known to stand long voyages and to joossess great vitality. 

 Mr. Bentham also, in his elaborate account of the Com- 

 positre,- remarks on the decided Central American or 

 Mexican aflinities of the Galapagos species, so that we may 

 consider this to be a thoroughly well-established fact. 



The most prevalent families of j^lants in the Galapagos 

 are the Compositse (40 sp.), Graminese (32 sp), Legumi- 

 nos8e (30 sp.), and Euphorbiaceae (29 sp.). Of the Com- 

 posit^e most of the species, except such as are common 

 weeds or shore plants, are peculiar, but there are only 

 two peculiar genera, allied to Mexican forms and not 

 very distinct; while the genus Lipocha^^ta, represented 

 here by a single S23ecies, is only found elsewhere in the 

 Sandwich Islands though it has American affinities 



Origin of the Galajmgos Flora. — These facts are ex- 

 plained by the past history of the American continent, its 



^ No additions appear to have been made to this flora down to 1885, 

 when Mr. Hemsley published his Report on the Present State of our Know - 

 ledge of Insular Floras. 



- Journal of the Linncan Society, Vol. XIII., "Botany," p. 556. 



