DERIVATION OF THE FLORA AND FAUNA 377 



for he gives a summary of my 19 14 paper (22^). He agrees on the great age 

 of the "Palaeopacilic element"; second comes the small neotropical, third the 

 large Chilean group: "hier liegt also wohl zum grossen Teil spate, iiberseeische 

 Einwanderung vor". This was, he found, even more true of the subantarctic 

 element, "das iiberhaupt keine endemische Arten aufzuweisen hat" — very few 

 were known then, but later some endemic species were discovered. 



The question to which extent Juan Fernandez presents the biological pecu- 

 liarities regarded as characteristic of oceanic islands — see Chapter VII — will now 

 be answered. We have seen that endemism is very high among the phanerogams 

 and that the various kinds distinguished by HoOKER are represented; we have 

 even a primitive endemic family, Lactoridaceae, we have a proportionately large 

 number of peculiar genera, some of them quite isolated, particularly among the 

 Compositae {Centaur odendro7i, Dendroseris, Hesperosei'is, Phoenicoseris, Rea, Rhe- 

 tinodendron^ Robinsonia, SympJiyochaeta, Yunqueci) but also in other families, 

 Cuniiiiia (Labiatae), Juania (Palmae), Megalacfme and Podophorns (Gramineae); 

 further there are a few endemic genera closely related to South American ones, 

 Nothomyrcia (Myrtaceae), OcJiagavia (Bromeliaceae), and Selkirkia (Boraginaceae). 

 As among the genera, so we find species of a strong character in Chenopodium, 

 Coprosma, Eryngium, EupJirasia, Fagara, Peperomia, Plaiitago, Sanialum, Urtka, 

 Wahleiibergia, well-marked but not very aberrant species in Berberis, Boehmeria, 

 Car ex, Cladium, Colletia, Erjgeron, Escallonia, Gunner a, Halorrhagis, Hespero- 

 greigia, Ranunculus, R/iaphitkaninus, Solanum and Ugni, and many not very 

 different from their continental congeners in Abrotanella, Acaena, Apium, Azara, 

 Cardami7te, Cliusquea, Drimys, Dysopsis, Galium, Luzula, Margyricarpus, Myrc- 

 eugenia, Perneitya, Pkrygilanthus, Sopkora, Spergularia and Uncinia. Species 

 undoubtedly native but also found elsewhere do not number more than 46, 

 and in several cases their citizenship is open to question. Endemism among 

 the ferns is not so high, but there is one very aberrant genus [Thyrsopteris] and 

 several peculiar species. Bryophytes and lichens will not be considered; they were 

 not included in HoOKER's paper and I have not had occasion to compare 

 them with other island floras. 



There are no conifers, a single leguminous genus [Sopkora] with two species, 

 and no orchids. The proportion genus : species is i : 1.65. Mammals, batrachians, 

 reptiles and fresh-water fishes are absent. The earth-worms are supposed to be 

 adventitious with the possible exception of Kerria saltensis. In all these respects 

 Juan Fernandez agrees with the character attributed to oceanic islands. 



The high percentage of woody plants was emphasized by SiNNOTT and 

 Bailey, but as the literature on which they based their figures is quite out of 

 date, a new table was prepared. 



The object of Sinnott and Bailey was, as we have seen above, to show 

 that the woody plants increase in number with the rising degree of endemism, 

 and that the endemic genera were trees or shrubs and formed a more ancient 

 element than the herbaceous plants which during former epochs were few in 



