25 



author " to the striking peculiarities which mark the Flora of the Ga- 

 lapagos group, and to the fact that the plants composing it not only 

 differ from those of any other country, but that each of these islands 

 has some particular productions of its own, often representatives of 

 the species which are found in the others of the group." The total 

 number of species is 239, of which upwards of 100 are described as 

 new. We scarcely see how the plants of these islands can be said to 

 " differ from those of any other country," since by far the greater 

 number are also natives of North and South America, the West India 

 Islands, many tropical countries, and some few even of Britain. This 

 statement is indeed modified by Dr. Hooker in his remarks on the 

 vegetation of the group, wherein the number of species differing from 

 those of other countries is more properly stated to be one half the en- 

 tire series ; " a peculiarity shared by no other tract of land of equal 

 size, excepting, perhaps, the Sandwich group." The author further 

 states the result of his examination of the plants of the Galapagos to 

 have shown " that the relationship of the Flora to that of the adjacent 

 continent is a double one, the peculiar or new species being for the 

 most part allied to plants of the cooler parts of America, or the up- 

 lands of the tropical latitudes, whilst the non-peculiar are the same as 

 abound chiefly in the hot and damper regions, as the West Indian 

 islands and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico ; also that, as is the case 

 with the Fauna, many of the species, and these the most remarkable, 

 are confined to one islet of the group, and often represented in others 

 by similar, but specifically very distinct congeners." 



The geographical distribution of plants is one of the most interest- 

 ing branches of botanical science ; and to this subject these two 

 papers are a very valuable contribution. Dr. Hooker enters at consi- 

 derable length into the consideration of the mode by which each dis- 

 trict of the earth, whether local or general, originally became possessed 

 of its own peculiar vegetation, and the means whereby the seeds of 

 certain plants were primarily transported and deposited in the locali- 

 ties on which they have subsequently conferred some of the most 

 striking features. These means of transport, as more peculiarly re- 

 specting the Galapageian plants, he classes under the several heads of 

 " oceanic and aerial currents, the passage of birds, and man." The 

 conveyance of the majority of the littoral species, as well as of several 

 of the non-littorals, is most probably due to the first-named of these 

 agents ; while such species as have small seeds, or seeds furnished 

 with wings or other appendages, may be looked upon as well adapted 

 for conveyance by the winds: and the agency of birds and of man to 



