THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 

VoL. XXIV. MARCH, 1890. 279. 

ON CERTAIN PECULIARITIES IN THE FLORA OF 
THE SANTA BARBARA ISLANDS. 
BY J. WALTER FEWKES. 
Foe study of the distribution of terrestrial life on islands has 
always been a prolific one in theoretical discussions of the 
origin of species. Darwin and Wallace both drew from this 
source most interesting conclusions in regard to their theories, 
and from it are still derived some of the most suggestive facts 
bearing on questions of geographical distribution, migration and 
preservation of genera and species. 
This is particularly true of oceanic islands separated from con- 
tinents by wide expanses of the ocean or of chains of islands 
connecting continental land-masses. The peculiar assemblage of 
life in Saint Helena, the Galapagos or the Bermudas contribute 
most important data to the general discussions of the derivation 
and modification of faunas and floras in isolated tracts of land in 
the ocean. It thus happens that the study of islands has always 
had a profound fascination to the investigator of the variations of 
life on the earth’s surface. 
As a general thing the terrestrial life of continental islands re- 
sembles that of the neighboring land-masses. The very con- 
tiguity would seem to imply a colonization of one from the other, 
and therefore a resemblance, since the ease with which genera 
and species can be transported across intervening water is an all 
