Stewart — Botanical Conditions fin the Galapagos Islands. 291 



is aquilina var. esculenta are not uncommon. The forest bor- 

 dering the cleared area seems to be made up mostly of the same 

 forms found around an elevation of 600 ft., where the cleared 

 area begins, but the lower part of it was not carefully explored. 

 The vegetation becomes much thinner in the uncleared areas 

 above 1,200 ft. elevation and with the exception of an occasional 

 tree of Sapindus saponaria, there are no trees of large size. The 

 country is covered with open woodland made up largely of small 

 trees and bushes of Croton Scouleri var. grandifolius, Scalesia 

 cordata, Solanum verbascifolium, Tournefortia rufo-sericea^ 

 Urera alceaefolia, Zanthoxylum Fagara, many epiphytic plants 

 and ferns. There are many park-like areas in the woodland 

 which are covered with grasses. The trees become smaller and 

 more scattered to an elevation of 1,500 ft., where they end rather 

 abruptly. 



The side of the mountain above 1,500 ft. elevation is somewhat 

 rolling and is covered with grassland on which large numbers of 

 cattle graze, which are slaughtered by the inhabitants of the is- 

 land for their hides. Paspalum conjugatum is the principal 

 species of grass found in this region. This condition continues 

 to an elevation of 2,400 ft, above which there is a decrease in the 

 amount of grass and a large increase in the fern flora. Small 

 tree ferns, Hemitelia multiflora, and other large species of ferns 

 are common from here to the top of the mountain. 



There is a great difference in the vegetation of the outer and 

 inner sides of the southern rim of the crater, where the most of 

 the collecting around the top of the mountain was done. The 

 outside of the rim at this place is mostly covered with small vege- 

 tation consisting of ferns, club-mosses, and small herbaceous 

 forms, all of which lie close to the ground, and it is only in places 

 which are protected from the wind that plants of any size are to 

 be found. Just over the rim of the crater, however, there is a 

 considerable growth of bushes of Duranta repens, Erigeron lan- 

 cifolius var. glabriusculus, Solanum verbascifolium, Zanthoxy- 

 lum Fagara, and other bushes. Hemitelia multiflora also occurs, 

 here in large numbers and such other ferns as Asplenium Serra,. 

 Dryopteris parasitica, Elaphoglossum muscosum, Polypodiumi 

 aureum, and Polystichum aculeatum abound. 



A gradual change from a mesophytic to a xerophytic vegeta- 

 tion can be readily noticed as one travels around the southern rim 

 of the crater towards the northwest side, but as our time was lim- 

 ited when this region was visited, no collections were made. 



