Stewart—Botanical Conditions on the Galapagos Islands. 289 
is a small grove of trees of Anona glabra and ferns. The in¬ 
habitants have planted a garden in this place which has been 
quite successful as bananas and other tropical plants grow there. 
The change from xerophytic to the mesophytic type of vegeta¬ 
tion is very abrupt here, as such pronounced xerophytes as Lan- 
tana peduncularis, Opuntia myriacantha, and Prosopis dulcis 
are found growing only a few feet away from the mesophytic 
plants enumerated above. There are several low marshy areas, 
filled with brackish water, in the vicinity of the settlement, in 
which there is a heavy growth of Eleocharis mutata. The stems 
of this plant are used by the inhabitants for making mats. The 
higher land between these marshes is covered with low and rath¬ 
er open forests consisting of trees of Acacia macracantha, Bur- 
sera graveolens, Hippomane Mancinella, and Opuntia myria¬ 
cantha, among which there are bushes of Chiococca alba, Clero- 
dendron molle, Cordia lutea, Gossypium barbadense, and bushes 
and small trees of Zanthoxylum Fagara on which Phoradendron 
Henslovii is often found. In many of the lava crevices, which 
are deep enough to reach the ground water, there are large 
bunches of Cyperus ligularis. 
On the broad plain some distance inland, there are beds of ba¬ 
saltic lava and volcanic cinder of a considerable width. The 
basaltic lava is often heavily covered with vegetation and in one 
place an entire flow is covered with a forest of Opuntia myria¬ 
cantha trees, underneath which there are low dense thickets of 
Euphorbia viminea and occasional bushes of Acacia macracan 
tha. Cyperus Mutisii was found growing abundantly in the 
smaller crevices of the lava in this area. The vegetation on the 
cinder deposits, however, is very open and consists mostly of oc¬ 
casional bushes, or small clumps of bushes, of Clerodendron 
molle, Erigeron tenuifolius, Lippia rosmarinifolia, and Scalesia 
gummifera on many of which there was a dense growth of vines 
of Cardiospermum galapageium, and Passiflora subrosa. Be¬ 
tween the bushes the ground is often bare for some distance. 
In one place, several miles inland, there is a low area which 
had the general appearance of having been filled with water 
at some time. There is much more soil here than in any place 
in this vicinity. There are pools here which seem to contain wa¬ 
ter the most of the time, around which Cyperus laevigatus and 
Sporobolus virginicus grow. Groves of Hippomane Mancinella 
grow in this area, in the shade of which there are bushes of Cae- 
19 — S. A. 
