Stewart — Botamical Conditions on the Galapagos Islnnrlfi. 289 



is a small grove of trees of Anona glabra and ferns. The in- 

 habitants have planted a garden in this place which has been 

 quite successful as bananas and other tropical plants grow there. 

 The change from xerophytic to the mesophytie type of vegeta- 

 tion is very abrupt here, as such pronounced xerophytes as Lan- 

 tana peduncularis, Opuntia myriacantha, and Prosopis dulcis 

 are found growing only a few feet away from the mesophytie 

 plants enumerated above. There are several low marshy areas, 

 filled with brackish water, in the vicinity of the settlement, in 

 which there is a heavy growth of Eleocharis mutata. The stems 

 of this plant are used by the inhabitants for making mats. The 

 higher land between these marshes is covered with low and rath- 

 er open forests consisting of trees of Acacia macracantha, Bur- 

 sera graveolens, Hippomane ^Mancinella, and Opuntia myria- 

 cantha, among which there are bushes of Chiococca alba, Clero- 

 dendron molle, Cordia lutea, Gossypium barbadense, and bushes 

 and small trees of Zanthoxylum Fagara on which Phoradendron 

 Henslovii is often found. In many of the lava crevices, which 

 are deep enough to reach the ground water, there are large 

 bunches of Cyperus ligularis. 



On the broad plain some distance inland, there are beds of ba- 

 saltic lava and volcanic cinder of a considerable width. The 

 basaltic lava is often heavily covered with vegetation and in one 

 place an entire flow is covered with a forest of Opuntia myria- 

 cantha trees, underneath which there are low dense thickets of 

 Euphorbia viminea and occasional bushes of Acacia macracan 

 tha. Cyperus Mutisii was found growing abundantly in the 

 smaller crevices of the lava in this area. The vegetation on the 

 cinder deposits, however, is very open and consists mostly of oc- 

 casional bushes, or small clumps of bushes, of Clerodendron 

 molle, Erigeron tenuifolius, Lippia rosmarinifolia, and Scalesia 

 gummifera on many of which there was a dense growth of vines 

 of Cardiospermum galapageium, and Passiflora subrosa. Be- 

 tween the bushes the ground is often bare for some distance. 



In one place, several miles inland, there is a low area which 

 had the general appearance of having been filled with water 

 at some time. There is much more soil here than in any place 

 in this vicinity. There are pools here which seem to contain wa- 

 ter the most of the time, around which Cyperus laevigatus and 

 Sporobolus virginicus grow. Groves of Hippomane Mancinella 

 grow in this area, in the shade of which there are bushes of Cae- 

 19— S. A. 



