78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



of which were represented by several specimens. These plants, criti- 

 cally determined by Aiidersson himself and distributed to the leading 

 lierbaria of various countries, have long furnished the chief reference 

 specimens for the interesting vegetation they represent. In 1853 

 Andersson published a detailed flora of the islands, and in 18o7 he 

 republished the same work in revised form and well illustrated. 



Since the appearance of these classical papers by Hooker and Anders- 

 son, there has been no general revision of the Galapageian flora. The 

 islands have been visited, however, and plants collected upon tluMn, — 

 in 18G8-1869 by Dr. A. Habel, in 1871 by the Ilassler Expedition 

 under the direction of Professor Louis Agassiz, in 1875 by Dr. Theodor 

 Wolf, in 1884 by Lieutenants Chierchia and Marcacci, in 1888 by 

 Professor Leslie A. Lee, in 1891 by Mr. Alexander Agassiz, also by the 

 late Dr. Georg Baur and his assistant, Mr. C. F. Adams, and finally 

 by Messrs. Robert E. Snodgrass and Edmund Heller of the Hopkins- 

 Stanford Expedition. Not only have these collectors secured much 

 additional material from the five larger islands, visited by Darwin and 

 Andersson, but many specimens are now at hand, chiefly through the 

 efforts of Dr. Baur and Messrs. Snodgrass and Heller, to illustrate the 

 florulae of no less than twelve of the smaller islands, of which nearly all 

 include new and peculiar species or forms. F'urthermore, since the appear- 

 ance of Andersson's works there have been many scattered notes, in 

 monographic treatments of families and genera, throwing new light upon 

 the identity, affinities, and nomenclature of Galapageian plants. It has 

 therefore seemed desirable during the study of the rich botanical collec- 

 tions secured by the Hopkins-Stanford PZxpedition and referred by the 

 Zoological Department of Stanford University to the Gray Herbarium 

 for examination, to undertake a general recension of the flora of the 

 Galapagos Islands, and to bring together its now more extensive bibliog- 

 raphy, synonymy, and records of distribution. This has appeared the 

 more worth while because some of the species regarded as new in the 

 earlier treatments of the flora have dropped into synonymy and others for- 

 merly supposed peculiar to the islands are now known to occur in other 

 regions ; so that without a comprehensive revision it wouhl be well nigh 

 impossible to draw any statistical suramarj^ or show (1) in how far the 

 vegetation of the archipelago is really peculiar, (2) to what other floras 

 it is most nearly related, and (3) the complicated affinities existing between 

 the florulae of the different islands. Finally, to these incentives there 

 has been added a wish to derive, if possible, new light upon the origin of 

 the islands themselves. 



