264 
ISLAND LIFE. 
[part II. 
no reason to doubt that besides the species that have actually 
established themselves, many others must have reached the 
islands, but were not suited to the climate and other physical 
conditions, or did not find the insects necessary to their 
fertilisation. 
If now we consider the extreme remoteness and isolation of 
these islands, their small area, and comparatively recent origin, 
and that, notwithstanding all these disadvantages, they have 
acquired a very considerable and varied flora and fauna, we shall, 
I think, be convinced, that with a larger area and greater 
antiquity, mere separation from a continent by many hundred 
miles of sea would not prevent a country from acquiring a very 
luxuriant and varied flora, and a fauna also rich and peculiar as 
regards all classes except terrestrial mammals, amphibia, and 
some groups of reptiles. This conclusion will be of great im- 
portance in many cases, where the evidence as to the exact 
origin of the fauna and flora of an island is less clear and satis- 
factory than in the case of the Azores and Bermuda. 
