Chap. XX.] FLOWERS FERTILIZED BY HUMiMING-BIRDS. 469 



Wild Peaches are spreading everywhere. These, the Cherries 

 and the Apples are possibly fertilized by the birds, but one 

 would hardly suppose that the Strawberries would be also thus 

 pollenized : though at a height of 9,000 feet in the Andes, I 

 have watched Humming-Birds, possibly the same species' as 

 that at Juan Fernandez, hovering over the low mountain 

 flowers, quite close to the ground, where nothing "like a bush 

 was growing. 



It would be very interesting, if it proved to be the case, that 

 Humming-Birds have in this distant island adapted themselves 

 to the fertilization of our common garden fruits. Besides the 

 fruit trees, there are many introduced plants with well-developed 

 flowers which thrive in the island ; a Thistle is very abundant 

 and luxuriant, as if eager to remind travellers to what race the 

 world owes the immortal Selkirk, and a Wild Turnip is rapidly 

 spreading. Possibly the abundant flies take some share in the 

 fertilizing work. 



It must be remembered, with regard to insular floras, that a 

 plant which had developed showy flowers to attract certain 

 insects on some main land or other place where insects were 

 abundant, might, when transferred to an island devoid of insects 

 suitable to its requirements, nevertheless retain its gaudy flowers 

 little or not at all impaired, for an indefinite period, just as 

 animals which have taken to deep-sea life have some of them 

 retained their colours, thou ;h living in the dark.* 



Selkirk's Monument is j laced on the crest of a short sharp 

 ridge in a gap in the mouistains at a height of about 1,800 feet 

 above the sea. From this, a steep descent leads down on 

 either side to the shore. Here Selkirk sat and watched the 

 sea on both sides of the island in long-deferred hope of sight- 

 ing a sail. 



Here w-e rested for some time, enjoying the view. Juan 

 Fernandez is only ten miles in length, and 20 square miles in 

 area, and from this elevated point nearly the whole extent of 

 the island could be overlooked. Yet this tiny spot of land 

 contains birds, land shells, trees, and ferns which occur nowhere 

 else in the vast expanse of the universe, but here or in the 

 neighbouring Mas-afuera. One could almost count the number 

 of trees of the endemic Palm {Ceroxylon ai/stnik) and estimate 



* -See A. R. Wallace, "Tropical Nature/' p. 274. London, 187S. 

 Mr. Darwin, "Origin of Species," 6th edition, p. 349, refers to the 

 similar survival of the hooks of hooked seeds in islands where there are 

 no mammals to the fur or wool of which they could cling. Some hooked 

 seeds may, however, surely also be adapted to hang in the feathers of 

 birds, as those of the Uncinia and Acaena of the Southern Islands, 

 possibly, for example, are adapted to those of the Albatross, 



