Stewart—Botanical Conditions fin the Galapagos Islands. 291 
is aquilina var. esculenta are not uncommon. The forest bor¬ 
dering the cleared area seems to be made up mostly of the same 
forms found around an elevation of 600 ft., where the cleared 
area begins, but the lower part of it was not carefully explored. 
The vegetation becomes much thinner in the uncleared areas 
above 1,200 ft. elevation and with the exception of an occasional 
tree of Sapindus saponaria, there are no trees of large size. The 
country is covered with open woodland made up largely of small 
trees and bushes of Croton Seouleri var. grandifolius, Scalesia 
cordata, Solanum verbascifolium, Tournefortia rufo-sericea, 
IJrera alceaefolia, Zanthoxylum Fagara, many epiphytic plants 
and ferns. There are many park-like areas in the woodland 
which are covered with grasses. The trees become smaller and 
more scattered to an elevation of 1,500 ft., where they end rather 
abruptly. 
The side of the mountain above 1,500 ft. elevation is somewhat 
rolling and is covered with grassland on which large numbers of 
cattle graze, which are slaughtered by the inhabitants of the is¬ 
land for their hides. Paspalum conjugatum is the principal 
species of grass found in this region. This condition continues 
to an elevation of 2,400 ft, above which there is a decrease in the 
amount of grass and a large increase in the fern flora. Small 
tree ferns, Hemitelia multiflora, and other large species of ferns 
are common from here to the top of the mountain. 
There is a great difference in the vegetation of the outer and 
inner sides of the southern rim of the crater, where the most of 
the collecting around the top of the mountain was done. The 
outside of the rim at this place is mostly covered with small vege¬ 
tation consisting of ferns, club-mosses, and small herbaceous; 
forms, all of which lie close to the ground, and it is only in places 
which are protected from the wind that plants of any size are to> 
be found. Just over the rim of the crater, however, there is a 
considerable growth of bushes of Duranta repens, Erigeron lan- 
cifolius var. glabriusculus, Solanum verbascifolium, Zanthoxy¬ 
lum Fagara, and other bushes. Hemitelia multiflora also occurs 
here in large numbers and such other ferns as Asplenium Serra, 
Dryopteris parasitica, Elaphoglossum muscosum, Polypodium 
aureum, and Polystiehum aculeatum abound. 
A gradual change from a mesophytic to a xerophytic vegeta¬ 
tion can be readily noticed as one travels around the southern rim 
of the crater towards the northwest side, but as our time was lim¬ 
ited when this region was visited, no collections were made. 
