Stewart—Botanical Conditions on the Galapagos Islands. 293 
of it not reaching an elevation of over 350 ft. There is a hill 
near the northwest side, however, which attains an elevation of 
650 ft. This hill ends abruptly at the top of a tall bluff: which 
drops almost straight downward into the sea. The shores of the 
island are made up of low lava cliffs for the most part, but there 
is a small bay on the northeast side, w T hich is surrounded by 
sand-beaches. This bay is sheltered by a small islet and a reef, 
Although this bay can not be entered by vessels, it nevertheless 
affords an excellent landing place for boats. 
Topographically the island is made up mostly of alternating 
ridges and valleys which have a general trend towards the south¬ 
east. The ridges, in a general way, are 100 ft. higher than the 
valleys, and are covered with tumbled masses of lava. The val¬ 
leys, on the other hand, usually have a considerable amount of 
soil in them, the most of which has probably been formed on the 
sides of the ridges and washed down. The soil varies from a 
light brown to an ochre color, and is very light in texture. The 
lava all seems to be basaltic in character and is evidently quite 
old as it has become stained to a redish-brown color. 
The only plants found on the sand-beaches surrounding the 
bay, were bushes of Cryptocarpus pyriformis, and mat-like 
growths of Sesuvium Edmonstonei both of which are not exclu¬ 
sively halophytic in their habits. The shores on other parts of 
the island are too steep to support halophytes. A short distance 
inland from the beach there are low thickets of Discaria, and 
Maytenus bushes. 
Owing to a low altitude, all of the vegetation in the interior 
of the island is very xerophytic in character, and about the only 
noticeable change that takes place in the vegetation towards the 
higher parts is the greater abundance of fruticose lichens. The 
most noticeable plants are the large trees of Opuntia myriacan- 
tha which grow in great numbers over the most of the island. 
Small trees of Bursera graveolens also occur, much infested with 
lichens. There was a fair growth of bushes in most places, con¬ 
sisting for the most part of such species as: Cordia lutea, Gor¬ 
ton Scouleri, Gossypium barbadense, Lantana peduncularis, Tel- 
anthera echinocephala and Scalesia Helleri, the last one of which 
was the only conspicuous green plant to be found on the interior 
of the island at the times we visited it. In the valleys between 
the ridges there were small areas which are covered with a 
growth of Euphorbia viminea forma barringtonensis. In other 
