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endemics, because they occur in certain regions on the main- 

 land. It seems not impossible that they were originally true 

 endemics, and somehow got carried across the water. The 

 Indians might have used the prickly-pear fruits for food and so 

 transported them. They might even have found nutriment in 

 the abundant yellow seeds of theErysimum; the seeds oi Salvia 

 columhariae, according to Millspaugh and Nuttall, were ground 

 into meal, for porridge and cakes. 



The clearest cases of true island endemics, that is, forms 

 which have developed their special character upon the islands, 

 are found among the mammals. Baird in 1857, described the 

 small fox Urocyon littoralis from San Miguel Island. We now 

 know special races of this animal, each with distinctive char- 

 acters, from Santa Catalina, San Clemente, San Nicolas, Santa 

 Cruz and Santa Rosa. The smaller Santa Barbara and Anacapa 

 appear to be without foxes. The remarkable tendency of mam- 

 mals to form insular races is shown by the recent discovery of a 

 special kind of mole (Scapanus latimanus insularis Palmer) on 

 Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. The foxes suggest that mere 

 isolation, regardless of the special environment, has brought 

 about the differentiation; but as a matter of fact the islands do 

 present some very diverse conditions. Thus it can be well 

 understood that the white-footed mice from the mountainous, 

 rocky, forested Santa Cruz should be darker than those from 

 the sand-dunes of San Miguel. 



I have tried to find evidence of cases among the plants to 

 parallel those of the mammals and birds. One of the best seems 

 to be in the Malvaceae, with Aialvastrum catalinense Eastwood 

 on Santa Catalina, M. clementinimi Munz and Johnston on 

 San Clemente, and M. nesioticum Robinson on Santa Cruz. 

 But what about that other more interesting member of the 

 family, the Malva Rosa or Tree Mallow, Lavatera assurgenti- 

 y?ora Kellogg? Millspaugh and Nuttall, in Their Flora of Cata- 

 lina, state that the type locality is Anacapa Island (where 

 Hoffmann collected it on Sept. 22, 1930) and that the only 

 other locality is Bird Rock, not a quarter of a mile from Fisher- 

 man's Cove, Catalina. They add that Greene described a num- 

 ber of supposed species, all based on plants known to have been 

 transplanted from Anacapa or Bird Rock. This last statement 

 is not correct, for Greene, in his very interesting account of his 

 visit to San Miguel (Pittonia, Vol. 1, 1887) states that he found 



