April 16, 1903] 



NA TURE 



56 1 



formed fish which passes into a beak at e ; but this 

 fish forms the body of a cock (there is also a fish in 

 the body of each cock in Fig. i); / is its beak with an 

 oval in front of it, behind it is an eye which touches the 

 crest, or cockscomb, which itself terminates in a fish's 

 tail g. Between this and the corresponding figure are 

 two degenerate cocks rampant, their feet are united, 

 the long falciform beaks directed upward and the tails 

 downward, the latter being connected by a pair of 

 small ellipsoids. Decorated fish-skin garments, worn 

 only by women, illustrate nearly all the lorms of cock 

 and fish ornaments, and numerous hybrids besides. 

 The body of a cock is often shaped like a fish, and 

 frequently has another fish enclosed within it; there 

 are also numerous, rather complicated, ornamental 

 arrangements, which are built up of spirals, trigrams, 

 leaves, conventionalised fishes, and elements of the 

 cock ornaments. Those who take the trouble to study 

 Mr. Laufer's memoir with the care it deserves will 

 satisfy themselves that the figures will bear these in- 

 terpretations, which, after all,«it must be remembered, 

 are the explanations that the natives gave to him. 



According to our author, no other explanation of the 

 predominance of the cock and fish in the decorative 

 art of the Amur tribes can be found than that these 



The conception of a fish in the form of a spiral is based, 

 he contends, on a true observation of that animal in its 

 natural state ; it would never have been drawn in spiral 

 form, never have clung to a spiral, without a founda- 

 tion of fact. This very capacity of the fish for motion, 

 together with the highly cultivated power of the people 

 to observe its motions, formed the reason for its adop- 

 tion in ornamentation. The same remark holds good 

 for the cock. It is doubtful whether this view of the 

 author's will appeal to all of his readers; the idea that 

 the bulk of the ornamentation of a group of people is 

 based mainly upon conceptions of motion is certainly 

 new. Whatever diversity of opinion there may be on 

 minor points, there can be none as to the value and 

 excellence of Mr. Laufer's work. It is no exaggeration 

 to say that this is the most minute and thorough study 

 we possess of the decorative art of an uncivilised people. 



Alfred C. Haddon. 



FLORA OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. 1 



IT is now more than half a century since Sir Joseph 

 Hooker published his famous essay on the flora 

 of this archipelago, founded mainly on the collections 

 made by Charles Darwin. Since then, until within 



Figs. 3 and 4. — Decoration in red and light green on the rim of the cover of a lacquered tohacco box. 



particular animals have an extremely ornamental 

 character because of the great permutations of their 

 graceful motions, and they thus lend themselves ad- 

 mirably to the spirit which strives after beauty of form. 

 There is no chronological sequence in the stages of 

 development ; the single phases of development are 

 merely various forms of different kinds of adaptation 

 to certain spaces or to given geometrical forms, mostly 

 spiral. The spiral, in his opinion, is not the final result 

 of the gradual conventionalisation of realistic images, 

 but is employed for the symbolic expression of the most 

 varied things, since its forms are so convenient for 

 this particular purpose. The same applies to the tri- 

 skele ; an entire cock is never represented by a purely 

 geometrical triskele ; the triskele plays an active rdle 

 in indicating single parts of the body, but not for the 

 whole creature. As an independent element, having 

 a definite meaning, the triskele never occurs. 



Mr. Laufer insists it should not be imagined that 

 the representations of animal life continued to lose more 

 and more of their original forms, and gradually shrunk 

 into geometrical devices. On the contrary, the multi- 

 farious kinds of conventionalisation have their final 

 cause, last but not least, in a faithful observation of 

 nature, especially in that ability to watch motions 

 which is so highly developed in the East Asiatic mind. 



NO. I/46, VOL. 67] 



the last decade, little had been done towards a more 

 complete investigation of this highly interesting flora 

 and fauna. It is to various American expeditions that 

 we are indebted for a more complete knowledge. The 

 late Dr. G. Baur was foremost in this work, and his 

 collections and theories were briefly discussed in 

 Nature (lii., 1895, P- 623). Baur boldly promulgated 

 the theory of subsidence, in opposition to upheaval, in 

 accounting for the origin of the islands, basing it upon 

 biological evidence. Dr. Robinson, the author of the 

 essay under consideration, and Mr. J. M. Greenman, 

 his collaborator, in working out Baur's botanical 

 collections were almost converted to Baur's theory. 

 In the present work Dr. Robinson practically recants, 

 and attempts to demonstrate that the composition of 

 the flora favours the assumption that it is derived 

 rather than original. I will first give some particulars 

 of the general composition of the flora, limiting them, 

 however, to the vascular plants. 



Unfortunately for purposes of comparison, Robin- 

 son's enumeration and tabulation of the plants include 

 all that were found growing in the islands, amongst 

 them Brassica campestris, B. Sinapistrum, Raphanus 



1 " Flora of the Galapagos Islands." By B. L. Robinson. Proceedings 

 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, xx.wiii. (1902). Pp. 77-270 

 with three plates. 



