276 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[rART IT. 



birds, and other animals, as we find to be the case in many 

 small and remote islands. * 



Flora of the Galapagos. — The plants of these islands are so 

 much more numerous than the known animals, even including 

 the insects, they have been so carefully studied by eminent 

 botanists, and their relations throw so much light on the past 

 history of the group, that no apology is needed for giving a 

 brief outline of the peculiarities and affinities of the flora. The 

 statements we shall make on this subject will be taken from the 

 Memoir of Sir Joseph Hooker in the Linnman Transactions for 



1 Juan Fernandez is a good example of a small island which, with time 

 and favourable conditions, has acquired a tolerably rich and highly peculiar 

 flora and fauna. It is situated in 34° S. Lat., 400 miles from the coast 

 of Chile, and so far as facilities for the transport of living organisms are 

 concerned is by no means in a favourable position, for the ocean-currents 

 come from the south-west in a direction where there is no land but the 

 Antarctic continent, and the prevalent winds are also westerly. No doubt, 

 however, there are occasional storms, and there may have been intermediate 

 islands, but its chief advantages are, no doubt, its antiquity and its varied 

 surface, offering many chances for the preservation and increase of what- 

 ever plants and animals have chanced to reach it. The island consists of 

 basalt, greenstone, and other ancient rocks, and though only about twelve 

 miles long its mountains are three thousand feet high. Enjoying a moist 

 and temperate climate it is especially adapted to the growth of ferns, which 

 are very abundant ; and as the spores of these plants are as fine as dust, 

 and very easily carried for enormous distances by winds, it is not surprising 

 that there are twenty-four species on the island, while the remote period 

 when they first received their vegetation may be indicated by the fact 

 that four of the species are quite peculiar. The same general character 

 pervades the whole flora and fauna. For so small an island it is rich, 

 containing a considerable number of flowering plants, four true land-birds, 

 about fifty species of insects, and twenty of land-shells. Almost all these 

 belong to South American genera, and a large proportion are South American 

 species ; but several of the plants and insects, half the birds, and the whole 

 of the land-shells are peculiar. This seems to indicate that the means of 

 transmission were formeily greater than they are now, and that in the case 

 of land-shells none have been introduced for so long a period that all have 

 become modified into distinct forms, or have been preserved on the island 

 while they have become extinct on the continent. — For a detailed examina- 

 tion of the causes which have led to the modification of the humming- 

 birds of Juan Fernandez see the author's Tropical Nature, p. 140 ; while 

 a general account of the fauna of the island is given in his Geographical 

 Distribution of Animals, Vol. II. p. 49. 



