Stewart — Botanical Conditions pn the Galapagos Islands. 303 



the group. There are several large springs on the plateau, the 

 water from which is piped down to the settlement, located at an 

 elevation of 900 ft. Sufficient water is obtained in this way to 

 supply a settlement of about four hundred and fifty people, and 

 to run a large sugar mill. Streams also occur on the lower parts 

 in the vicinity of Wreck Bay, during the rainy season, some of 

 which have a considerable amount of water in them at times. 

 The plateau is covered with a heavy coating of yellow clay-like 

 soil which is mixed with vegetable mold in the wooded areas. 

 This island was visited from Basso Point, Sapho Cove, and 

 Wreck Bay. 



Basso Point. 



Basso Point is on the west side of the island about five miles 

 northeast of Wreck Bay. The point shelters a broad bay which 

 lies southwest of it, around which there are sand beaches and 

 rocky shore. The sand beaches support a few halophytic plants 

 and in the immediate vicinity of these beaches there are thickets 

 of bushes of Cryptocarpus pyriformis, Discaria pauciflora, and 

 Maytenus obovata. The country in the interior is quite rough 

 and there are many exposures of lava on which there is scarcely 

 any vegetation. The country rises gradually to an elevation of 

 about 1,100 ft. above which the ascent is more abrupt, leading 

 up to the top of a range of hills which run parallel with the coasL 

 in a northeasternly direction. 



There are low dense forests on this part of the island which 

 are made up mostly of trees of Bursera graveolens and Piscidia 

 Erythrina, both of which are smaller than they are in the region 

 around Wreck Bay. There is not as much cactus here as is usu- 

 ally the case in the lower regions. Cereus galapagensis occurs 

 to some extent near the shore but no specimens of Opuntia were 

 seen below an elevation of 800 ft., and they were not abundant 

 even there. 



There is a heavy growth of bushes in the forest in most places 

 the most common species of which are: Croton Scoulera var. 

 albescens, Discaria pauciflora, Gossypium barbadense, and Lan- 

 tana peduncularis. The Discaria bushes grow so thickly in 

 places as to form impassable barriers by the interlocking of their 

 thorny branches. 



This part of the island was not visited above an elevation of 

 900 ft. With the exception of a few specimens of Polypodium 



