458 dr. f. b. white on the [May 7, 



wood-frequenting — Anchastus, Anobium, the 17 genera of Cos- 

 sonidce, Nesiotes, &c. 



Thus 1 6 out of the 25 peculiar genera, and nearly 80, at least, 

 out of the 1 29 peculiar species, live in wood at some period of their 

 existence. The Anthribidce, of which 26 species occur in St. 

 Helena, are not wood-borers, although probably lignivorous as larvae, 

 but cling rather tenaciously to foliage, dead wood, &c. ; and they, 

 as well as most of the remaining Coleoptera as well as the species of 

 the other groups which are also attached to plants, must be specially 

 liable to transportation in or about drift-wood, &c. In the case of 

 winged species the winds, of course, would assist in the work. 



But it is unnecessary to pursue this subject any further, save to 

 mention that though most of the plant-frequenting beetles are 

 attached to some one or other of the peculiar plants, it by no means 

 follows that their ancestors were so restricted ; for, as observed by 

 Mr. Wollaston, some at the present day devour with apparently 

 equal relish, the native arborescent Compositae and the introduced 

 Coniferae. . Nor is it necessary to suppose that they were introduced 

 with the tree Compositae, because it is probable that the progenitors 

 of the latter were not arborescent when they arrived in the island, but 

 that that condition was gradually evolved 1 . Some of the Cossonidce 

 are quite content with the pithy stems of thistles &c, though the 

 family is essentially wood-loving. 



It is also worth while noting the extreme paucity of that section 

 of the Coleoptera known as the Phytophaga, which seems to show 

 not only that the lignivorous beetles had more facilities of transport 

 than those that merely fed upon the leaves of plants, but that, as 

 Mr. Wollaston remarks, the early flora of St. Helena was essen- 

 tially a woody one. Now that the forest has vanished, and though 

 the greater part of the island is suited for the Phytophaga, yet the 

 number of species remains the same — showing, I think, that coloni- 

 zation (apart from that brought about by man's unintentional 

 agency) is not now going on. 



A word now as to the flora. The aboriginal plants have, as has 

 been already said, most affinity with the flora of Southern extra- 

 tropical Africa. This affinity can surely only arise from a common 

 origin ; and if, as I have attempted to prove, the origin of the fauna 

 is Palaearctic, it seems reasonable to suppose that the origin of the 

 flora is the same, and that the same agencies which brought its 

 fauna to St. Helena brought its flora also. Without going into 

 details of the South-African flora (for which, indeed, I have not the 

 materials), I may mention that there are one or two genera of plants 

 common to it and to St. Helena which are strongly suggestive of a 

 Palaearctic origin and dispersion by the influence of a glacial epoch : — 

 for example, Slum, which has an endemic representative in St. 

 Helena ; the very characteristic Cape genus Pelargonium, which has 

 a straggler in Syria (where, be it noted, the endemic St.-Helenian 

 coleopterous genus Haplothorax has, according to Lacordaire, its 

 nearest allies) ; and others. 



1 Darwin, I r. p, 350. 



