1835.] FLORA OF THE GROUP. 387 



of this archipelago, and to whom I am indebted for the 

 above details, informs me that there are several new 

 genera ; and that of the genera not new, one or two are 

 American, and the rest of mundane distribution. With the 

 exception of a wood-feeding Apate^ and of one or probably 

 two water-beetles from the American continent, all the 

 species appear to be new. 



The botany of this group is fully as interesting as the 

 zoology. Dr. J. Hooker will soon publish in the " Linnean 

 Transactions " a full account of the Flora, and I am much 

 indebted to him for the following details. Of flowering 

 plants there are, as far as at present is known, 185 species, 

 and 40 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 confined, at least 10 species found near 

 the cultivated ground at Charles Island, have been imported. 

 It is, I think, surprising that more American species have 

 not been introduced naturally, considering that the distance 

 is only between 500 and 600 miles from the continent ; and 

 that (according to Collnett, p. 58) driftwood, 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 sufficient, 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 Ccnnpositce ^ 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 undoubted Western American character ; 

 nor can he detect it in any affinity with that of the Pacific. 

 If, therefore, we except the eighteenth marine, the one 

 fresh-water, and one land-shell, which have apparently 

 ( ome here as colonists from the central islands of the 

 Pacific, .and likewise the one distinct Pacific species of the 

 ( lalapageian groups of finches, we see that this archipelago, 

 though standing in the Pacific ocean, is zoologicall\ 

 part of America. 



If this character were owinjf merely to immigrants from 



