In Juan Fernandez, on the other hand, there is no such total deficiency of showy flowers. I am informed by Mr. Moseley that a variety of the Magnoliaceous winter-bark abounds and has showy white flowers, and that a Bignoniaceous shrub with abundance of dark blue flowers was also plentiful; while a white-flowered Liliaceous plant formed large patches on the hill-sides. Besides these, there were two species of woody Compositæ with conspicuous heads of yellow blossoms, and a species of white-flowered myrtle also abundant; so that, on the whole, flowers formed a rather conspicuous feature in the aspect of the vegetation of Juan Fernandez. But this fact--which at first sight seems entirely at variance with the view we are upholding of the important relation between the distribution of insects and plants--is well explained by the existence of two species of humming-birds in Juan Fernandez, which, in their visits to these large and showy flowers, fertilize them as effectually as bees, moths, or butterflies. Mr. Moseley informs me that “these humming-birds are _extraordinarily abundant_, every tree or bush having one or two darting about it.” He also observed that “nearly all the specimens killed had the feathers round the base of the bill and front of the head clogged and coloured yellow with pollen.” Here, then, we have the clue to the perpetuation of large and showy flowers in Juan Fernandez; while the total absence of humming-birds in the Galapagos may explain why no such large-flowered plants have been able to establish themselves in those equatorial islands.