THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



415 



rated by long north and south spaces either of land or of 

 open sea. 



I took great pains in collecting the insects, but excepting 

 Tierra del Fuego, I never saw in this respect so poor a coun- 

 try. Even in the upper and damp region I procured very few, 

 excepting some minute Diptera and Hymenoptera, mostly of 

 common mundane forms. As before remarked, the insects, 

 for a tropical region, are of very small size and dull colours. 

 Of beetles I collected twenty-five species (excluding a Der- 

 mestes and Corynetes imported, wherever a ship touches) ; 

 of these, two belong to the Harpalidas, two to the Hydro- 

 philidse, nine to three families of the Heteromera, and the 

 remaining twelve to as many different families. This cir- 

 cumstance of insects (and I may add plants), where few in 

 number, belonging to many different families, is, I believe, 

 very general. Mr. Waterhouse, who has published 4 an 

 account of the insects of this archipelago, and to whom I am 

 indebted for the above details, informs me that there are 

 several new genera: and that of the genera not new, one 

 or two are American, and the rest of mundane distribution. 

 With the exception of a wood-feeding Apate, and of one or 

 probably two water-beetles from the American continent, 

 all the species appear to be new. 



The botany of this group is fully as interesting as the 

 zoology. Dr. J. Hooker will soon publish in the " Linnean 

 Transactions " a full account of the Flora, and I am much 

 indebted to him for the following details. Of flowering 

 plants there are, as far as at present is known, 185 species, 

 and 40 cryptogamic species, making altogether 225; of this 

 number I was fortunate enough to bring home 193. Of the 

 flowering plants, 100 are new species, and are probably con- 

 fined to this archipelago. Dr. Hooker conceives that, of the 

 plants not so confined, at least 10 species found near the 

 cultivated ground at Charles Island, have been imported. 

 It is, I think, surprising that more American species have 

 not been introduced naturally, considering that the distance 

 is only between 500 and 600 miles from the continent; and 

 that (according to Collnet, p. 58) drift-wood, bamboos, canes, 

 and the nuts of a palm, are often washed on the south-eastern 

 * Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist, vol. xvi. p. 19. 



