378 



C. SKOTTSBERG 



Table VI. 

 Percentage of woody and herbaceous species in Juan Fernandez. 



* Four species suffruticose. 



comparison, and the Juan Fernandez Islands were regarded as supporting their 

 hypothesis; this, to judge from the table, they certainly do. The five woody 

 non-endemic species are Enipctnoii rubruvi and Salicornia frnticosa (low, erect 

 shrubs), and Myiicola nuuiDiularia, Riihus gcoides and Calystegia tuguyioruni 

 (trailing). 



The rosette tree form is observed in 16 genera with together 31 species, 

 belonging to six families, Boraginaceae, Bromeliaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Compositae, 

 Plantaginaceae and Umbelliferae; the palm Juaiiia is of course excluded. As I 

 have paid special attention to them in another paper {2ji), where they were 

 well illustrated, no more will be said here. 



Annual and biennial herbs, the therophytes of RaunkL4{R, are not completely 

 lacking, but they are very few: Caniauiine c]ienopodiifolia, Chaclotropis (2 species), 

 Parietaria, Piautago tniiicata, Tetragonia and Urtica Masafucrac. In 2§i I listed 

 Chaetotropis among the hemicryptophytes; they give the impression of lasting 

 more than one year and are found green at all seasons, and the same may be 

 true of Parietaria. I am not at all sure that Plaiitago triDieata is native. The 

 Cardamine has been seen twice, last time in 1872, the Urtica not since 1854, 

 when it was discovered. It may be that it is an ephemerous plant and disappears 

 in early spring, a season when very few botanists have visited the islands. 



Thus, the "oceanic peculiarities" are all there, but possibly some of them 

 can be explained otherwise. Fndemism of a very high degree within a small 

 area is no monopoly of isolated islands; it will be sufficient to mention the Cape 

 flora or southwestern Australia. The large proportion of woody plants can be 

 understood if the islands became isolated before the myriads of herbs, particularly 

 the annuals of Central Chile, had evolved. Grisebach's "Clavija" and related 

 life forms are not confined to oceanic islands; if my interpretation of this mor- 

 phological type as an evidence of antiquity is correct, we can understand why 

 it takes such a prominent part in old island floras. The reason why therophytes 

 are almost wanting is not climatic. This is amply proved by the innumerable 

 annual weeds introduced with the traffic and thriving only too well. The climate 

 is of a modified Mediterranean type, and from a purely climatic viewpoint we 

 should expect a large percentage of native annuals and biennials; this question 

 was discussed at some length in 2ji. 827-830. Chile has hundreds of endemic 



