and the Cape Verde Islands from Africa; such colonists
would be liable to modification--the principle of inheritance still
betraying their original birthplace.

Many analogous facts could be given: indeed it is an almost universal
rule that the endemic productions of islands are related to those of the
nearest continent, or of the nearest large island. The exceptions are
few, and most of them can be explained. Thus, although Kerguelen Land
stands nearer to Africa than to America, the plants are related, and
that very closely, as we know from Dr. Hooker's account, to those of
America: but on the view that this island has been mainly stocked
by seeds brought with earth and stones on icebergs, drifted by the
prevailing currents, this anomaly disappears. New Zealand in its endemic
plants is much more closely related to Australia, the nearest mainland,
than to any other region: and this is what might have been expected; but
it is also plainly related to South America, which, although the next
nearest continent, is so enormously remote, that the fact becomes an
anomaly. But this difficulty partially disappears on the view that New
Zealand, South America, and the other southern lands, have been stocked
in part from a nearly intermediate though distant point, namely, from
the antarctic islands, when they were clothed with vegetation, during
a warmer tertiary period, before the commencement of the last Glacial
period. The affinity, which, though feeble, I am assured by Dr. Hooker
is real, between the flora of the south-western corner of Australia
and of the Cape of Good Hope, is a far more remarkable case; but this
affinity is confined to the plants, and will, no doubt, some day be
explained.

The same law which has determined the relationship between the
inhabitants of islands and the nearest mainland, is sometimes displayed
on a small scale, but in a most interesting manner, within the limits
of the same archipelago. Thus each separate island of the Galapagos
Archipelago is tenanted, and the fact is a marvellous one, by many
distinct species; but these species are related to each other in a very
much closer manner than to the inhabitants of the American continent,
or of any other quarter of the world. This is what might have been
expected, for islands situated so near to each other would almost
necessarily receive immigrants from the same original source, and
from each other. But how is it that many of the immigrants have be