FLOKA OF GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 311 



pagos flora possesses affinities with the highlands rather than 

 the lowlands. 



In this brief account of the main features of the fauna and 

 flora of the Galapagos archipelago I have endeavoured to state 

 mainly the opinions of those who agree with the theory of 

 elevation a,s propounded by Darwin. Some authorities formu- 

 lated no decisive views on the subject. It is currently believed 

 that the first criticism of this theory was brought forward by 

 Professor Baur * in 1890, in a paper on the variation of the 

 genus Tropidurus in the Galapagos islands. Although it was 

 the first serious criticism, Mr. Andrew Murray f remarked 

 much earlier that Darwin's observations on the Galapagos 

 fauna had led him to an entirely different conclusion. " The 

 American type of the whole group," he says, " speaks pri- 

 marily of connection with the continent. The family facies 

 of the group inter ,se, speaks of a period when the whole 

 islands were separated from America, but united to each other. 

 The endemic peculiarity of the species of each individual 

 island tells of subsequent separation and change wrought 

 in each, probably at the same time, by the alteration of climate 

 from continental or terrestrial, to isolated and oceanic." 



It was not until 1891, when a more popular account of 

 Professor Baur's views appeared in the " American Natu- 

 ralist," that his opinions led to considerable discussion both 

 in America and in Europe. It had seemed as if Darwin's 

 theory, supported as it was by Wallace, Hooker, Agassiz and 

 many other naturalists of less note, was unassailable. Never- 

 theless, Professor Baur's careful reasoning induced many sub- 

 sequent writers to ad/>pt his views in preference to older 

 ones. He urged with Dr. Wallace that all islands may be 

 divided into Continental and Oceanic ones. The first have 

 developed from continents or larger bodies of land through 

 isolation or subsidence. The second have not been so formed, 

 but have arisen from submarine portions of the earth by eleva- 

 tion. He thought that the fauna and flora of the first group of 

 islands would be more or less harmonic, that is to say, the 

 islands would be like satellites of the continent from which 

 they took their origin. The fauna and flora of the second 



* Baur, G., " Variieren der Eidechsen-Ofattung Tropidurus." 

 t Murray, A., " Distribution of Mammals," p. 17. 



