58 BULLETIN OF THE 
so characteristic of that extremity of the island. Here and there grow, 
like huge candelabra, Cereus and Opuntias, forming clusters often over 
twenty feet in height, with thick branches; and close to the beach 
were clusters of small bushes and weeds, which probably represent, 
with the Opuntias growing between the lava blocks, the earliest flora 
which found a foothold in the Galapagos. 
We may readily imagine, as pictured by Andersson, how, from the de- 
composition of a few Opuntias, a little humus formed the nucleus from 
which the seeds of other plants may have diverged, and gradually given 
rise, by a repetition of the process, to the soil supporting the present 
vegetation. Perhaps, if we contrast the so called characteristic species 
of the Galapagos, which find their analogues in the Central American 
district, we may be justified in looking upon the flora as a part of that 
district, an outlyer which has extended from the eastern centre to the 
westward, and yet regard the differences noticed in the flora as an ex- 
pression of the special conditions due to the position, the climate, the 
age, and the soil of the islands, as contrasted with the corresponding 
conditions of the mainland. 
As we ascend, we come upon thicker vegetation, not exactly of trees, 
but of large bushes, gradually passing into the region of small trees and 
of open fields, over which the mist hanging on the highest parts of the 
island spreads a slight moisture, and supplies the higher district with 
abundant vegetation and water over the fields which once were the 
home of the galapagos. And it may be that Chatham Island, as has 
been suggested by Andersson, being the one of the islands most exposed 
to the Humboldt Current and to the southeast trades, is the one which 
was first covered by South American plants. 
On Charles Island, or Floreana, the vegetation is less luxuriant, the 
distance between the trees and bushes greater than on Chatham, and 
there seems to be a more definite limitation of the districts occupied 
by each group of plants (Plates XX., XXI.); and on the shore of Black 
Beach! we come at once upon a number of plants which are quite com- 
1 * We anchored in Black Beach Road in eleven fathoms, sand. This anchorage 
is an open bay, but being on the west or lee side of Charles Island affords a good 
shelter from the trades, which blow most of the year. It is the seaport of what 
was at one time a flourishing settlement, now abandoned, and derives its name 
from a short stretch of black Java sand beach lying at the head of the bay, between 
low cliffs of dark lava rock. [See Plates XVIIL, XIX.] At the time of our visit 
[1888] great numbers of cattle, horses, mules, donkeys, sheep, and hogs were run- 
ning wild. The buildings were fallen to ruin, but there was a plentiful supply of 
fruit on the trees, from which we procured many bushels of oranges and limes, a 
