294 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part II. 



The other classes of animals in St. Helena need oociipy us 

 little. There are no indigenous mammals, reptiles, fresh-water 

 fishes or true land-birds ; but there is one species of wader — a 

 small plover {jEgialitis sanctce-helenm) — very closely allied to a 

 species found in South Africa, but presenting certain differences 

 which entitle it to the rank of a peculiar species. The plants, 

 however, are of especial interest from a geographical point of 

 view, and we must devote a few pages to their consideration as 

 supplementing the scanty materials afforded by the animal life, 

 thus enabling us better to understand the biological relations 

 and probable history of the island. 



Native Vegetation of St. Helena. — Plants have certainly more 

 varied and more effectual means of passing over wide tracts 

 of ocean than any kinds of animals. Their seeds are often so 

 minute, of such small specific gravity, or so furnished with 

 downy or winged appendages, as to be carried by the wind for 

 enormous distances. The bristles or hooked spines of many 

 small fruits cause them to become easily attached to the 

 feathers of aquatic birds, and they may thus be conveyed for 

 thousands of miles by these pre-eminent wanderers; while 

 many seeds are so protected by hard outer coats and dense 

 inner albumen, that months of exposure to salt water does not 

 prevent them from germinating, as proved by the West Indian 

 seeds that reach the Azores or even the west coast of Scotland, 

 and, what is more to the point, by the fact stated by Mr. Melliss, 

 that large seeds which have floated from Madagascar or 

 Mauritius round the Cape of Good Hope, have been thrown on 

 the shores of St. Helena and have then sometimes germinated ! 



We have therefore little difficulty in understanding how the 

 island was first stocked with vegetable forms. When it was 

 so stocked (generally speaking), is equally clear. For as the 

 peculiar coleopterous fauna, of which an important fragment 

 remains, is mainly composed of species which are specially 

 attached to certain groups of plants, we may be sure that the 

 plants were there long before the insects could establish them- 

 selves. However ancient then is the insect fauna the flora 

 must be more ancient still. It must also be remembered that 

 plants, when once established in a suitable climate and soil, soon 



