1i
348 C U O X O S A l i C l I I P E I .A G O . Jail. 1835.
from the ground to the tip of the upper leaf, not less than
four feet.
So very close is the general resemblance with the cultivated
species, that it is necessary to show that they have
not been imported. The simple fact of their growth on the
islands, and even small rocks, throughout the Chonos
Archipelago, which has never been inhabited, and very
seldom visited, is an argument of some weight. But the
circumstance of the wildest Indian tribes being well acquainted
with the plant, is stronger. Mr. Lowe, a very
intelligent and active sealer, informs me, that on showing
some potatoes to the naked savages in the Gulf of Trinidad
(lat. 50°), they immediately recognised them, and calling
them “ Aquina,” wanted to take them away. The savages
also pointed to a place where they grew; which fact was
subsequently verified. The Indians of Chiloe, belonging to
another tribe, also give them a name in their own language.
The simple fact of their being known and named by distinct
races, over a space of four or five hundred miles on a most
unfrequented and scarcely known coast, almost proves their
native existence. Professor Henslow, who has examined the
dried specimens which I brought home, says that they
are the same with those described by Mr. Sabine* from
Afolparaiso, but that they form a variety which by some
botanists has been considered as specifically distinct. It
is remarkable that the same plant should be found on the
sterile mountains of central Chile, where a drop of rain
does not fall for more than six months, and within the
damp forests of the southern islands. From what we know
of the habits of the potato, this latter situation would
appear more congenial than the former, as its birthplace.
In the central parts of the Chonos Archipelago, in lat.
45° 30', the forest has assumed very much the same charac-
* H o r tic u ltu r a l T r a n s a c t., vo l. v., p . 2 49. M r. C a ld c leu g li s e n t h om e
tvro tu b e rs , wh ich b e in g well m a n u r e d , even th e first seaso n p ro d u c e d
n um e ro u s p o ta to e s a n d a n a b u n d a n c e o f leaves.
Jan. 1835.
ter which is found along the whole west coast for 600 miles
to Cape Horn. The arborescent grass of Chiloe has here
ceased to exist ; while the beech of Tierra del Fuego both
grows to a good size, and forms a considerable proportion of
the wood ; not, however, in the same exclusive manner as it
does further to the southward. Cryptogamie plants here find
a most congenial climate. In the neighbourhood of the Strait
of Magellan, I have before remarked that the country appears
too cold and wet to allovz of their arriving at perfection ; but
in these islands, within the forest, the number of species, and
gi-eat abundance of mosses, lichens, and small ferns, is quite
extraordinary.* In Tierra del Fuego trees grow only on the
hill-sides; every level piece of land being invariably covered
by a thick bed of peat ; but in Chiloe the same kind of situation
supports the most luxuriant forest. Here, within the
Chonos Archipelago, the nature of the climate more closely
approaches that of the southern, than that of the northern, of
these two countries. Nearly every patch of level ground
is covered by two species of plants [Asteliapumila of Brown,!
and Dcnatia mage/laiiica), which by their joint decay compose
a thick bed of elastic peat.
In Tierra del Fuego, above the region of woodland, the
former of these eminently sociable plants is the chief agent
in the production of peat. Fresh leaves are always succeeding
one to the other, round the central tap root ; the lower
ones soon decay; and in tracing a root downward in the
peat, the leaves (yet holding their position) can be observed
passing through every stage of decomposition, till the
whole becomes blended in one confused mass. The Astelia
is assisted by few other plants ; here and there a smaU creeping
one [Myrtus nummularia), with a woody stem like our
* By sw e e p in g w ith my in se c t-n e t, I p ro c u r e d from th e s e s itu a tio n s a
c o n s id e rab le n um b e r o f m in u te in se c ts o f t h e fam ily o f S ta p h y lin idæ , a n d
o th e rs a llied to P s e la p liu s , a n d m in u te H ym e n o p te r a . B u t th e m o st
c h a ra c te r is tic fam ily in n um b e r o f b o th in d iv id u a ls a n d sp ecies, th ro u g h o
u t th e m o re o p e n p a rts o f C h ilo e a n d Ch o n o s, is t lia t o f th e T e lc p h o r idæ .
! Anthcricum tri/frrhivi o f S o la n d e r.
1
I, if!'