Vor. I] STEWART—BOTANY OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 111 
ft. high, the relative positions of the two being such that one 
would judge that the taller was the parent of the procumbent 
specimen. A short distance away from these there was another 
individual, with a stem approximately 2 ft. high and 1 ft. in 
diameter. The general arrangement of the branches, and the 
arming of the articulations in all three of these specimens, was 
the same, so that there seems to be but little doubt of their all 
belonging to the same species, (no. 3002). None of these low 
forms were noticed on the adjacent Hood Island, a fact that 
may be due to the presence of goats on the latter. It might be 
well to mention in this connection that stemless Opuntias also 
occur on Bindloe, Culpepper, Gardner (near Charles), Tower, 
and Wenman Islands, and with the exception of the Seymour 
Islands these are the only islands of importance in the group 
from which land-tortoises or their remains have not been 
reported. When this is considered together with the fact that 
the branches of Opuntias form the principal article of food of 
these animals on the lower parts of all of the islands where they 
occur, a suggestion is given as to the possible origin of the 
arborescent forms, or at least why the low forms have persisted 
on the islands where they have been undisturbed. Hoop Ist. : 
generally distributed all over the island except on the southeast 
side, where they appear to be almost entirely absent for a mile 
or more back from the shore, (no. 3003). James IsL.: north- 
east side, abundant on lava beds to above 700 ft. Above 450 
ft. the spines are more capillary than they are-on specimens 
seen lower down. 
This species has a relatively short trunk, which is usually 
1-114 ft. in diameter, but sometimes as much as 4% ft. 
Branches are usually sent off 6-7 ft. above the ground, and as 
they all come off from about the same level, the crown is regu- 
larly rounded, broadly spreading, and somewhat umbrella- 
shaped. The outer articulations are disk-like and covered with 
fascicles of capillary bristles, while the proximal ones are 
thickened, unarmed, and covered with the same kind of brown- 
ish periderm that covers the trunk. The flowers are yellow, 
7.5 cm. in diameter, contrary to Henslows’ description, 1. c. 
The fruit is green, and not red as mentioned by Andersson, see 
Hemsley, (3), 31. A Cereus was no doubt mistaken for an 
Opuntia in this instance, as Cereus is the only genus of this 
