262 AZOREAN FLORA. {^September, 



The endemic plants of the Azores (this formidable term means 

 peculiar— io\x\id. there and nowhere elge) are fifty, or, in other 

 terms, they constitnte one-eighth of the entire vegetation of these 

 islands ; or in every eight Azorean plants one is found only here. 

 Of these only five are cryptogamous species. The vascular plants 

 of the British isles are probably about four times as many as the 

 plants of the Azorean group. We know that an eighth part of 

 these is not endemic to the British Isles. Is there one in a hun- 

 dred peculiar to our native land ? Is there one in a thousand which 

 is only produced here and nowhere else ? Is there as many as 

 one ? 



Some will say, Yes, Primula scotica ! Others will say, Nay, this 

 is only a variety of P.farinosa, as it was long called. But an 

 eighth part is a large proportion of endemic species ! How came 

 they there ? Did the seeds or the roots of these fifty peculiar 

 plants retain their vitality under water during thousands of years ? 

 I^ew would assert this. It may amuse the believers in Mr. 

 Darwin's theory of the origin of species to hear that there are 

 some people who want to know where the forty-three single plants 

 and the four doubles (for there are two Spurges and two Nettles 

 among these strict Azoreans) existed without increasing their pro- 

 geny till the islands were in a condition to receive them and to 

 afford them a habitation and a home where they could increase 

 and multiply as they now do. Were they created when the laud 

 was drained ? 



Those who can crack this nut have better teeth than we, — but 

 ours are aged, — and especially if they believe what we do not, that 

 only a single hermaphrodite plant and a pair of monoecious species 

 were originally created. It is not easy to account for their long 

 lives, nor to imagine where they lived, nor to conceive why they 

 were formed at all, when there was no place for them to occupy. 

 These are questions to be solved only by those who can see 

 further into nature's secrets than the mason can see into the 

 millstone. 



The climate of this insular group is about the same as that of 

 the south of Portugal and Sicily, only rather moister. The 

 lowest temperature is in January, 8° R., or about 50° Fahr., and 

 the highest in August, 20° R., or 90° Fahr. 



Heavy rains fall between the months of December and March 

 inclusive, and these, by washing the rocky ground, diminish the 



