456 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [December 



Robinson^ has published an account of the flora of the Galapagos islands, 

 being one of the papers from the Hopkins-Stanford expedition. The pecul- 

 iar character of the vegetation of these islands was brought to scientific 

 attention in 1847 by Sir Joseph Hooker, his material being based chiefly 

 upon the collections of Charles Darwin made on the voyage of the "Beagle." 

 Hooker enumerated 239 species, of which 107 were described as new. In 

 1852 N. J. Andersson visited the islands, collecting 338 numbers, which being 

 distributed in sets to the leading herbaria have long furnished the chief ref- 

 erence specimens for that peculiar flora. Since that time there has been no 

 general revision of the flora, although the islands have been visited and 

 plants collected on them. The occasion of the present contribution is the 

 recent collection secured by the Hopkins-Stanford expedition, and referred 

 to the Gray Herbarium by the Zoological Department of Stanford Univer- 

 versity. 



The flora of the Galapagos islands is almost wholly American in char- 

 acter, but it is impossible to trace its relationship closely to any one section 

 of the Pacific American vegetation. The xerophytic elements show a con- 

 siderable resemblance to the desert flora of southern Peru and the drier parts 

 of the Andes; while the mesophytes correspond most nearly to plants of 

 Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, and southern Mexico. The composi- 

 tion of the flora is peculiar in the absence of certain great groups. There 

 are no gymnosperms, palms, aroids, rushes, Liliaceae ; in fact, outside of 

 grasses and sedges the monocotyledons are represented by some half dozen 

 scattered species. Such characteristic tropical American dicotyledonous 

 families as Sapindaceae, Myrtaceae, Melastomaceae, Lythraceae, and 

 Onagraceae are scarcely or not at all represented ; while the best repre- 

 sented dicotyledonous families are Amarantaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Aizoaceae, 

 Leguminosae (about 10 per cent of the spermatophytic vegetation), Euphor- 

 biaceae (about 12 per cent), Malvaceae, Cactaceae, Convolvulaceae, Boragi- 

 naceae. Verbenaceae, Labiatae, Solanaceae, Rubiaceae, and Compositae 

 (about 13.5 per cent). The statistics show 54 species of pteridophytes and 

 445 species of spermatophytes ; of the former there are only 3 endemic 

 species, of the latter 236, that is, nearly 45 per cent, of the spermatophytic 

 flora. Of the 239 endemic vascular plants, 130 are restricted to a single 

 island. 



About 30 new species arc described, distributed among the following 

 genera: Chloris, Peperomia. Pilea, Phoradendron, Froelichia, Telanthera 

 (3), Mollugo, Bursera, Acalypha(3), Euphorbia, Cereus (2). Opuntia, Miconia, 

 Hydrocotyle, Acnistus, Justicia, Acanthospermum, and Scalesia (5). A new 

 species of Glossophora, and a new genus [Herpophylloft) of Rhodophyceae 

 are described by Dr. Farlow. — J. M. C. 



5 Robinson, B. L., Flora of the Galapagos islands. Proc. Am. Acad. 38:77-269- 

 pis. 1-3. 1902. 



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