ST. HELENA. 
226 
changes, hundreds or even thousands of centuries may have wit- 
nessed in that portion of the globe, leaving, perhaps, this unique 
little floral remnant, now fast disappearing, as almost the only 
record of what once was. 
Dr. Hooker says that “ neither geological considerations, nor 
botanical affinity, nor natural selection, nor all these combined, have 
yet helped us to a complete solution of this problem, which is at 
present the bete-noire of botanists. Oceanic islands are, in fact, to 
the naturalist what comets and meteorites are to the astronomer. 
And even that pregnant doctrine of the origin and succession of 
life, which we owe to Darwin, and which is to ns what the spectrum 
analysis is to the physicist, has not proved sufficient to unravel the 
tangled phenomena. 
So Air, therefore, the manner in which this once incandescent 
mass first received its Flora, whether by the agency of birds or 
atmospheric and oceanic currents, or direct from that Hand by which 
all things were created, still remains unfathomed. Geology helps 
ns to penetrate a little further into the history of the Island, 
beyond the infinitesimally small period of its existence since man 
first visited it, and enables us slightly to trace some of those 
physical changes with which its indigenous Flora and Fauna have 
had to contend. It teaches us that, long ages ago— so long that, 
as Mr. Darwin remarks, the mind recoils from an attempt to grasp 
the number of centuries — the dimensions of the Island were much 
larger than they are now; that it was much longer and broader, and 
more lofty than it now appears, when, probably with snow-capped 
mountain tops, and lower lying swampy lands, it possessed a very 
different climate from what we find in the present day. What 
effect these changes, together with long isolation, may have produced 
upon species, or what variations* they may have brought about, it 
is not easy to determine. But we may safely regard change ot 
climate, with alterations in the physical condition of the land, as 
additional causes to the introduction of goats and exotics for 
the gradual extinction of the indigenous Flora. f Dr. Hooker 
* It iB a remarkable peculiarity that the indigenous flowers are, with very slight excep- 
ti0n + AMtto caus^ which S assisted in the extermination of the Redwood and Ebony appears 
throLh the following extract from the MSS. Records, 1709:-“ lorasmuch as the Redwood 
throug , o v fitt f or Tanning Leather) are most of em destroyed by the 
the paines to barhe the whole trees hut only the hodys, 
