Stewart — Botanical Conditions mi the Galapagos Islands. 297 



account there are no halophytes to speak of except a small bunch 

 of rather stunted mangroves a short distance south of the land- 

 ing place. 



The region north and e&st of this place is covered with a fair 

 amount of ashy soil through which the lava seldom appears. 

 South of here, however, there are exposures of lava, covered for 

 the most part with Croton bushes. Just back of the landing 

 place there is a flat area covered with bushes and small trees of 

 Maytenus obovata and Prosopis dulcis. Another small area 

 occurs a few hndred yards north of the landing place near the 

 coast, which is covered with tumbled masses of lava among which 

 Cereus galapagensis, Lecocarpus pinnatifidus, Mentzelia aspera, 

 and Scalesia decurrens grow. 



The larger vegetation to an elevation of 450 ft. consists of trees 

 of Bursera graveolens, and Opuntia galapageia. In the vicin- 

 ity of the shore there are also trees of Cereus galapagensis. The 

 vegetation is all rather open but there are a considerable number 

 of bushes of Cordia lutea, Croton Scouleri var. Macraei, Lantana 

 peduncularis, Maytenus obovata, Gossypium barbadonse, and 

 Vallesia pubescens. Acacia macracantha and Prosopis dulcis 

 also occur in this region to some extent but they assume the size 

 of trees around 450 ft. There are remains of an old settlement 

 at this elevation which is marked by a grove of Geoff roea striata 

 and other trees, as well as by a few other domesticated jjlants of 

 smaller size. There was evidently a spring of w^ater here at 

 some former time but it was dry at the times this place was vis- 

 ited. 



A decided change takes place in the vegetation above an eleva- 

 tion of 450 ft. For possibly the first 200 ft. there are large 

 bunches of bushes of Clerodendron molle, in between which are 

 grasses and smaller plants. This is succeeded above by more 

 open country on which there are occasional Bursera trees and 

 bushes, the most common of which are, Capraria biflora, and Lip- 

 ochaeta larieifolia. Perennial grasses grow between the bushes, 

 to which a considerable number of annual forms are added dur- 

 ing the rainy season. 



The plateau region, around an elevation of 1,000 ft., is covered 

 with stretches of rather open woodland, and meadow. The 

 woodland usually occurs where the lava is exposed or reaches 

 nearly to the surface of the ground. In these areas trees of Scal- 

 esia pedunculata are common but they do not grow to as large a 



