Stewart—Botanical Conditions pn the Galapagos Islands. 303 
the group. There are several large springs on the plateau, the 
water from which is piped down to the settlement, located at an 
elevation of 900 ft. Sufficient water is obtained in this way to 
supply a settlement of about four hundred and fifty people, and 
to run a large sugar mill. Streams also occur on the lower parts 
in the vicinity of Wreck Bay, during the rainy season, some of 
which have a considerable amount of water in them at times. 
The plateau is covered with a heavy coating of yellow clay-like 
soil which is mixed with vegetable mold in the wooded areas. 
This island was visited from Basso Point, Sapho Cove, and 
Wreck Bay. 
Basso Point. 
Basso Point is on the west side of the island about five miles 
northeast of Wreck Bay. The point shelters a broad bay which 
lies southwest of it, around which there are sand beaches and 
rocky shore. The sand beaches support a few halophytic plants 
and in the immediate vicinity of these beaches there are thickets 
of bushes of Cryptocarpus pyriformis, Discaria pauciflora, and 
Maytenus obovata. The country in the interior is quite rough 
and there are many exposures of lava on which there is scarcely 
any vegetation. The country rises gradually to an elevation of 
about 1,100 ft. above which the ascent is more abrupt, leading 
up to the top of a range of hills which run parallel with the coast 
in a northeasternly direction. 
There are low dense forests on this part of the island which 
are made up mostly of trees of Bursera graveolens and Piscidia 
Erythrina, both of which are smaller than they are in the region 
around Wreck Bay. There is not as much cactus here as is usu¬ 
ally the case in the lower regions. Cereus galapagensis occurs 
to some extent near the shore but no specimens of Opuntia were 
seen below an elevation of 800 ft., and they were not abundant 
even there. 
There is a heavy growth of bushes in the forest in most places 
the most common species of which are: Croton Scoulera var. 
albescens, Discaria pauciflora, Gossypium barbadense, and Lan- 
tana peduncularis. The Discaria bushes grow so thickly in 
places as to form impassable barriers by the interlocking of their 
thorny branches. 
This part of the island was not visited above an elevation of 
900 ft. With the exception of a few specimens of Polypodium 
