DERIVATION OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA 353 



Species were the most numerous in the flora, and that the "rare" ones were few 

 in number? If this was what HoOKER meant, the result will be: Species also found 

 on the continent: 46; endemic species allied to South American or other conti- 

 nental species: 71; endemic genera, related to continental genera: 5 (6 species); 

 endemic genera not related to continental ones: 12 (24 species). Still, this is per- 

 haps to give a wrong interpretation to Hooker's words. There are very few 

 native non-endemics on St. Helena, and they are of course not in the majority 

 in the Canary Islands, nor are, in the latter place, the isolated endemic genera 

 and species very many. In this case HoOKER says "plants", not "genera" and 

 "species". If, to this group, as represented in Juan Fernandez, we add isolated 

 endemic species, not related to any species in the mother continent, although the 

 genera occur there, this group comprises 54 plants, or more than ^/g of the angio- 

 sperms, while group 2 is reduced from 71 to 40. The figures would be: 46, 40, 

 6, 54, thus conforming much better to Hooker's rule. 



5. Indigenous annual plants are extremely rare or altogether abse7it. 



Here "rare" must mean few species, and Therophytes are very few in Juan 

 Fernandez and some of the registered species perhaps not originally native. 



How were plants transported to distant islands.^^ Hooker's answer is: either 

 across the sea or over submerged bridges, and he adds: "the naturalist, who takes 

 nothing for granted, finds insuperable obstacles to the ready acceptance of either". 

 The situation is still the same 90 years after Hooker. 



Hooker regarded the isolated island plants as "relics of a far more ancient 

 vegetation than now prevails on the mother continent", but he most certainly 

 never wanted to say that the continental flora was altogether younger than the 

 insular but that species, now restricted to the island, formerly occurred on the 

 mother continent, having become replaced there by younger species. He based 

 his opinion on the fact that Macaronesian relicts had been found as fossils in 

 Tertiary deposits on the continent. Time has not permitted me to collect modern 

 data, and I can only suppose that some of the old determinations still hold good. 

 The vegetation of Europe has undergone great changes "within the lifetime of 

 these Atlantic island species"; they once grew in Europe, but were driven out 

 from there to be preserved on the islands, which they had reached "when condi- 

 tions may have been very different from what they are now". 



The theory of a continental Macaronesia, including Madeira and the Azores, 

 goes back to Forbes' theory of the former connection between the British Islands 

 and the mainland, definitely proved ages ago. FORBES went further and revived 

 the old idea of a lost Atlantis, still favoured by many. 



It is interesting to follow Hooker's discussion with his friend Darwin on 

 island problems. Darwin believed in the efficiency of dispersal agents to carry 

 plants and animals across wide expanses of sea, and his arguments made such 

 a deep impression on HoOKER that he became almost convinced. Still, he hesi- 

 tated, and certain serious difficulties prevented him from fully accepting Darwin's 

 ideas. The composition of the flora of the Azores was not what we had reason 

 to expect from the direction of winds and currents. The Macaronesian Ornis is 

 almost the same as in Europe and undoubtedly came from there, but the flora 



23 - 557857 The Nat. Hist, of Juan Fernandez and Easter Isl. Vol. I 



