A SUMMER TRIP. 73 



of the Gulf Stream are almost equally peculiar in the 

 southern character of their native flora. Thus in the 

 rocky clefts of the Steep Holm the deep red blossoms of 

 the true paeony may still be seen profusely in May and 

 June, while it is found wild nowhere else in Europe 

 nearer than the Pyrenees ; and on Lundy the wild 

 asparagus covers the granite of the shore in many places, 

 though now almost extinct elsewhere in Great Britain, 

 save perhaps at Asparagus Island in Kynance Cove near 

 the Lizard, and some half-dozen other similar places. 

 It would be easy enough to make a long list of such 

 southern plants which still linger on in a few scattered 

 spots of Devonshire, Cornwall, and Kerry relics of the 

 old flora of the submerged land between France, Spain, 

 and Ireland ; but perhaps a yet more interesting fact 

 about Lundy is the fact that it has in all probability 

 actually developed two new animals of its own. 



Of course, the animals are not very large or very 

 ferocious : if they were there would not be much room 

 for them on Lundy. But an animal is an animal what- 

 ever its size may be, and the mere appearance of two 

 separate animals on the rocky boss of Lundy, and no- 

 where else in the world, is certainly in itself a sufficiently 

 surprising instance of local evolution. They are, in fact, 

 nothing more than two small beetles. It is, of course, 

 possible that these beetles may belong to the old fauna 

 of the Bristol Channel, just as some of the plants almost 

 certainly do, being found elsewhere on the Continent at 

 the present day. But, on the other hand, it is far more 

 probable, I think, that they are true natives of Lundy, 

 sons of the soil developed on the spot ; for it is well 

 known that species are particularly apt to vary on 



