ging to eight distinct orders. The only beetle was a
small Elater, the Orthoptera were a Gryllus and a Blatta; and there were
two flies, two ants, and two small moths, one a Diopaea which swarms
everywhere in the eastern tropics in grassy places. All these insects were
no doubt brought either by winds, by floating timber (which reaches the
islands abundantly), or by clinging to the feathers of aquatic or wading
birds; and we only require more time to introduce a greater variety of
species, and a better soil and more varied vegetation, to enable them to
live and multiply, in order to give these islands a fauna and flora equal
to that of the Bermudas. Of wild plants there were only twenty species,
belonging to nineteen genera and to no less than sixteen natural families,
while all were common tropical shore plants.[62] These islands are thus
evidently stocked by waifs and strays brought by the winds and waves; but
their scanty vegetation is mainly due to unfavourable conditions--the
barren coral rock and sand, of which they are wholly composed, together
with exposure to sea-air, being suitable to a very limited number of
species which soon monopolise the surface. With more variety of soil and
aspect a greater variety of plants would establish themselves, and these
would favour the preservation and increase of more insects, birds, and
{287} other animals, as we find to be the case in many small and remote
islands.[63]

_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 con