_Flora of the Galapagos._--The plants of these islands are so much more numerous than the known animals, even including the insects, they have been so carefully studied by eminent botanists, and their relations throw so much light on the past history of the group, that no apology is needed for giving a brief outline of the peculiarities and affinities of the flora. The statements we shall make on this subject will be taken from the Memoir of Sir Joseph Hooker in the _Linnaean Transactions_ for 1851, founded on Mr. Darwin's collections, and a later paper by N. J. Andersson in the _Linnaea_ of 1861, embodying more recent discoveries. {288} The total number of flowering plants known at the latter date was 332, of which 174 were peculiar to the islands, while 158 were common to other countries.[64] Of these latter about twenty have been introduced by man, while the remainder are all natives of some part of America, though about a third part are species of wide range extending into both hemispheres. Of those confined to America, forty-two are found in both the northern and southern continents, twenty-one are confined to South America, while twenty are found only in North America, the West Indies, or Mexico. This equality of North American and South American species in the Galapagos is a fact of great significance in connection with the observation of Sir Joseph Hooker that the _peculiar_ species are allied to the plants of temperate America or to those of the high Andes, while the non-peculiar species are mostly such as inhabit the hotter regions of the tropics near the level of the sea. He also observes that the seeds of this latter class of Galapagos plants often have special means of transport, or belong to groups whose seeds are known to stand long voyages and to possess great vitality. Mr. Bentham also, in his elaborate account of the Compositae,[65] remarks on the decided Central American or Mexican affinities of the Galapagos species, so that we may consider this to be a thoroughly well-established fact. The most prevalent families of plants in the Galapagos are the Compositae (40 sp.), Gramineae (32 sp.), Leguminosae (30 sp.), and Euphorbiaceae (29 sp.). Of the Compositae most of the species, except such as are common weeds or shore plants, are peculiar, but there are only two peculiar genera, allied to Mexican forms and not very distinct; while the genus Lipochaeta, represented here by a single species, is only found elsewhere in the Sandwich Islands though it has American affinities.