those few novel forms that appear only in the most arctic parts of America. Even
between the floras of Lord Auckland’s and Campbell’s Islands a marked difference
exists, several species growing most abundantly in the latter which are not found at all
in the former, where also the proportion of species common to other Antarctic countries
is less, and the affinity is greater with tlie productions of New Zealand.
L o r d A u c k la n d ’s G r o u p .— A view of this small and very limited group, of about
twenty miles long and eleven in its greatest breadth, as it appears on approaching from
the sea, presents an almost equal distribution of wood, shrubs, and pasture-land. The
mountains are low and undulating, nowhere exceeding 1400 or 1500 feet, clothed for
their greater part, but scarcely to the very summits, with long grass, and frequently
covered during November and December, though not generally, with snow. The
climate is rainy and very stormy, so that on the windward sides the plants are stunted
and checked, and resemble those of a higher southern latitude, or of an elevation several
hundred feet above that which the same species inhabit on the sheltered parts. The
whole group of islands appears formed of volcanic rocks, mostly of black trap, whose
decomposition, especially among the ranker vegetation of the lower grounds, produces
a deep rich soil. A i l y r ta c e o u s tr e e ÇM e tro s id e ro s um h e lla ta ) forms the larger proportion
of the wood near the sea, and intermixed with it grow an arborescent species
o i D r a c o p h y llum , several C o p ro sm a s , V e ro n ic a s (frutescent), and a P a n a x . Under these,
and particularly close to the sea-beach, many F e r n s abound ; conspicuous among them
is a species with caulescent or subarborescent stems half a foot and upwards m diameter,
crowned with handsome spreading tufts of fronds. Beyond the wooded region, some
of the same plants, in a dwarf state, mingled with others, compose a shrubby broad
belt, which ascends the hill to an elevation of 800 or 900 feet, gradually opening out
into grassy slopes, and succeeded by the alpine vegetation. It is especially towards
the summits of these hills that the most striking plants are found, vying in brightness
of colour with the Arctic Flora, and unrivalled in beauty by those of any other Antarctic
country. Such are the species of G e n tia n , and a V e ro n ic a with flowers of the intensest
blue, several inagniticent C om p o s itoe , a R a n u n c u lu s , a P h y lla c h n e , and a L ilia c e o u s plant
whose dense spikes of golden flowers are often so abundant as to attract the eye from a
considerable distance. Here too the vegetable types of other Antarctic lands may be
seen in the greatest number, and even such as are analogous to the Arctic productions,
none of which can be more decided than a species of H ie r o c h lo e , P o t e n t i l la , C a r d am in e ,
J u n c u s , D ro s e r a , P la n ta g o , E p ilo b ium , several G ra s s e s , and M o s se s belonging to the
genera A n d roe a , C o n o s tom um and B a r tr a m ia . Many of the plants in the lower grounds
are no less striking and beautiful, as an arborescent V e ro n ic a bearing a profusion oi
white blossoms, a maritime G e n tia n , a handsome large-flowered M y o s o tis , the magnificent
A r a l ia p o la r is (Hombr. and Jacq.), two fine kinds of A n iso tom e , and several beautiful
F e rn s .
C am p b e ll’s I s la n d , two degrees to the southward o f Lord Auckland’s group, is
smaller, far more steep and rocky, with narrow sheltered valleys, and the broader faces
of the hills much exposed, and hence bare of any but a grassy vegetation. Except in
the bays, the coast is as iron-bound as that of St. Helena, the rocks assuming even a
wilder and more fantastic form. Ever lashed by heavy swells, and exposed to a succession
of westerly gales, this land affords no holding-place for such trees as skirt the
beaches of Lord Auckland’s Islands. In the narrow, sinuous bays, however, the scene
is quite changed, for they are often margined by a slender belt of brushwood, with an
abundant undergrowth of F e rn s , stretching up the steep and confined gulleys.
The geological features of the two islands are alike, and the only difference in climate
consists in that of Campbell’s Island being still more forbidding and dreary. Fogs,
snow-squalls and mists are the prevailing meteorological phænomena o f these regions,
and though such a state of atmosphere has a tendency to check the general mass of
vegetation, still the constant moisture and equable temperature thus afforded support
a luxuriant herbage in the very sheltered valleys. In Campbell’s Island, the mountains,
which rise very abruptly to about 1300 feet, are almost bare o f vegetation, their rocky
sides presenting a larger proportion of G ra s s e s , M o s s e s and L ic h e n s than in Lord Auckland’s
group. Though all the handsomer plants are also found in the larger of the
latter islands, yet, by growing here at a much lower elevation and in far greater abundance,
they form a more striking feature in the landscape, the golden-flowered U lia c e o u s
plant being conspicuous, from its profusion, at the distance of a mile from the shore.
I. RANUN CULACEÆ, J u s s .
1. R a n u n c u l u s (H ecato n ia) p in g u is. Ho o k , ill.; acauHs, ca rn o su s, p ifo su s , foliis om n ib u s
radicalibus lo n g e p e tio la tis rem fo rm i-ro tu n d a tis c ren a to -lo b a tis, p etio lis b asi la te v ag in an tib u s, sca-
pis crassis n u d is v. I -2 -b ra c te a tis folia a ;q u an tib u s unifloris, sepalis 5 -8 calyce b rev io rib u s obovato-
cu n e atis v. lin earib u s, n ec tariis 3 q u an d o q u e n u llis v. o b soletis, carpelUs n ume ro sissim is in c a p itu lum
globosum are te congestis vix compressis u trin q u e su b a la tis dorso q u e ca riu atis stylo valido re c to b i-
alato apice smpe u n cin ato te rm in a tis . (T a b . I.)
Var. /3. pitosus ; minor, petiolis follia scapis calycibusque magis pilosis, petalis linearibus sepalis i bre-
vionbus, nectariis 3 valde distinctis.
Var. y. rhombifolius, minor, foliis subrotundo-rhombeis 3-5-fidis segmentis subacutis crenato-dentatis
V. integris.
H a d . L o rd A u ck la n d ’s g ro u p , a an d /3 in bo g g y places on th e hills, a lt. 1000 fe e t; a n d from
th e sea to th e mo u n ta in to p s , a lt. 1200 feet, in Cam p b ell’s Is lan d , y. R o ck y pla ces in L o rd A u ck land’s
g ro u p , alt. 1200 feet, rare.
B 2
I