ST. HELENA FLOBA 233 



end for weeks, months, years of Sundays, for between you 

 and me I am getting giddy with science in all shapes, and 

 with the worry of social, scientific, and official life, and I 

 long for rest and nothing but the Library and Herbarium 

 to busy myself with. 



This is the best and most sensible growl you have had 

 from me for a long time.' Ever your affectionate 



J. D. HOOKER. 

 To the Same 



[Darwin had sent for his criticism a paper he had received 

 on the flora and insects of St. Helena.] 



October 7, 1878. 



DEAR DARWIN, I had already read [the] paper and 

 corresponded with [the author] about his conclusions. 

 Unfortunately the Botany is all dead against him. There 

 is no relationship whatever between the N. Atlantic Island 

 Flora and that of St. Helena. 



You have marked a passage to the effect that ' one or 

 two genera of plants common to St. Helena and S. Africa 

 are strongly suggestive of a Palaearctic origin, and dis- 

 persion by the influence of a Glacial epoch ; for example 

 Sium, which has an endemic representative in St. Helena, 

 and the very characteristic Cape genus Pelargonium, which 

 has a straggler in Syria.' 



Now the Sium which I first described, I have stated 

 to be closely allied to the S. Thunbergia of the Cape, which 

 is no Palaearctic form ; t and how Pelargonium is to be classed 

 as Palaearctic because one species grows in Syria, whilst 

 hundreds are confined to the Cape, which is its headquarters, 

 passes my comprehension. 



I have come to the conclusion that the Flora of St. Helena 

 is very S. African and not in the least North Atlantic, and 

 as the plants must have got to St. Helena before the insects, 

 these must, if they came from the North, indicate that the 

 Flora has survived the Glacial epoch, i.e. had come from the 

 Cape before it. 



The difficulty of attributing to the Flora a Miocene age 



or origin is, the absence of any old types, such as Conifers 



and Cycads or examples of exceedingly limited (i.e. dying 



out) Natural Orders. If I remember aright, most or all 



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