866 Address of A. R. Wallace at the Glasgow Meeting. 
as may be seen by examining the plates of Dr. Seeman’s 
“Flora Vitiensis.” 
Darwin and Pickering both speak of the great preponderance 
of ferns at Tahiti, and Mr. Moseley, who spent several days in 
the interior of the island, informs me that “at an elevation of 
And he adds, “I have nowhere seen ferns in so great pro- 
portionate abundance.” This unusual proportion of ferns isa 
general feature of iusular as compared with continental floras; 
but it has, I believe, been generally attributed to favorable 
conditions, especially to equable climate and perennial moist- 
ure. In this respect, however, Tahiti can hardly differ greatly 
from many other islands, which yet have no such vast poe 
derance of ferns. This is a question that cannot be decided by 
mere lists of species, since it is probable that in Tahiti they are 
less numerous than in some other islands where they form a 
far less conspicuous feature in the vegetation. The island 
most comparable with Tahiti in that respect is Juan Fernandez. 
Mr. Moseley writes to me-—“In a general view of any wide 
stretch of densely-clothed mountainous surface of the island, 
the ferns, both tree-ferns and the unstemmed forms, are seen at 
once to compose a very large proportion of the mass of foliage. 
As to the insects of Juan Fernandez, Mr. Edwyn C. Reed, who 
made two visits and spent several weeks there, has kindly fur- 
nished me with some exact information. Of butterflies there 
g EF 
of moderate size were observed—all Chilian, and a few larve 
and pupx. Of bees there were none, except one very yes 3 
species (allied to Chilicola), and of other Hymenoptera, a fie 
€ excessive minuteness and great abundance of fe — 
causes them to be far more easily distributed by winds than 
