BOTANY. 165 



cryptogamic species, making together 225 ; of this 

 number I was fortunate enough to bring home 193. 

 Of the flowering plants, 100 are new species, and 

 are probably confined to this archipelago. Dr. 

 Hooker conceives that, of the plants not so con- 

 fined, at least 10 species found near the cultivated 

 ground at Charles Island have been imported. It 

 is, I think, surprising that more American spe- 

 cies have not been introduced naturally, consider- 

 ing that the distance is only between 500 and 600 

 miles from the continent ; and that (according to 

 Collnett, p. 58) drift-wood, bamboos, canes, and 

 the nuts of a palm, are often washed on the south- 

 eastern shores. The proportion of 100 flowering 

 plants out of 185 (or 175 excluding the imported 

 weeds) being new, is sufiicient, I conceive, to make 

 the Galapagos Archipelago a distinct botanical 

 province ; but this Flora is not nearly so peculiar 

 as that of St. Helena, nor, as I am informed by Dr. 

 Hooker, of Juan Fernandez. The peculiarity of 

 the Galapageian Flora is best shown in certain 

 families : thus, there are 21 species of Composite, 

 of which 20 are peculiar to this archipelago ; these 

 belong to twelve genera, and of these genera no 

 less than ten are confined to the archipelago ! Dr. 

 Hooker informs me that the Flora has an undoubt- 

 ed Western American character, nor can he detect 

 in it any affinity with that of the Pacific. If, there- 

 fore, we except the eighteen marine, the one fresh- 

 water, and one land-shell, which have apparently 

 come here as colonists fi-om the central islands of 

 the Pacific, and likewise the one distinct Pacific 

 species of the Galapageian group of finches, we see 

 that this archipelago, though standing in the Pacific 

 Ocean, is zoologically part of America. 



If this character were owing merely to immi- 

 orants from America, there would be little remark- 



