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I'
Y’ar./3, R. et P .j gracilis, foliis ómnibus petiolatis, petiolis gracüibus. F. macrostema,
R u iz et Pavón, Fl. Pe r. vol. üi. p. 88. t. 3 2 4 . f. b. Hook. et A m . in Bo t. Miscell. vol. iii. p. 3 0 8 . DC.
Prodr. vol. iii. p. 3 7 . Lodd. Bot. Cab. 1 . 1 0 6 2 . F . discolor, L in d l. Bot. Reg. 1 . 1 8 0 5 . Hook. Bot. Mag.
t. 3 4 9 8 . F. gracüis, L in d l. Bo t. R e g .i.8 4 1 et, v a r ./3 ,1 0 5 2 . DC. Prodr. vol. iii. p. 3 7 . F . decussata,
Graham in Edinb. Ph il. Journ. vol. i. p. 4 0 1 . Hook. Bo t. Mag. t. 2 5 0 7 . non R u iz et Pavon.
H a b . Fuegia and South Chili. “Var. a, mountain woods in the Strait o f Magalhaens ; Commerson.
Y q i.S , Good Success Bay, Batiks and Solaiider; Port Famine, Capt. K h ig ; Fuegia, C. Danvin, Esq.;
Staten Island, M r , Webster.
The commoner forms of Chilian Fuchsia are certainly referable to the F. macrostma of R. and P. (as
suggested by Dr, Lindley under F. discolor) ; it is the most abundant South American variety, growing from the
latitude of JTalparaiso to that of Fuegia, and is also now the general garden-plant in the neighbourhood of London.
Of the original F. coccínea, Ait., on the other hand, I have never seen wüd specimens ; it is probably rare in its
native couutiy, and though introduced into England so long ago as 1788, by Capt. Firth, and universally cultivated
for many succeeding years, it has qiüte given place to the more graceful and paler-flowered variety. The comparative
length of the petioles appears to afford a very sufficient character of the two states ; they are short in the garden
specimens of var. a, robustior, &nd in Feuülé’s, Unger’s, Lamarck’s, and Curtis’s plates of F. coccínea ; but longer
and slender in all the native samples of var. /3, and in the published flgures of F. macrostema.
TVhüe the climate of Fuegia bore the character of being among the most rigorous in the world, its vegetation was
quoted as presenting a truly singular anomaly, because there, Fuchsias and the Veronica decussata, accompanying
other half-hardy and greenhouse plants, flourish in the open air. Now, however, it is well imderstood that the
climate is inclement and not rigorous ; and boisterous and cold summers not being necessarily the indices of pro-
portionably severe winters, the fact is no longer doubted, or even wondered at. The difference between the climates
of Great Biitain and Fuegia is only an exaggeration of what exists between the east and west coasts of England and
Scotland, or stiU more remarkably between Suffolk and Devonshire.
2. EPILOBIUM, L.
1. E p ilo b ium tetragonum, Linn.; Sp. P I. 4 9 4 . Engl. Bo t. 1 .1 9 4 8 .
T’ai. /9, Antarcticum ; caule ascendente basi sæpius procumbente ad ángulos pubescente, fohis latioribus
crassioribusque.
H a b. Tierra del Fuego; C. Danoin, Esq. Falkland Islands; 3Ir. Chartres, J .D .H . Var. ;3, Port
Famine ; Capt. King.
The species of Epilobium inhabiting the southera hemisphere are equally variable as those of the opposite one,
appearing indeed quite inextricable. Some are undoubtedly alhed to the plants of Europe, so that no description can
be framed by which they may be recognized, whüst others differ in what are confessedly unimportant and fallacious
characters.
What is here considered the E. tetragonum of Europe, has been the subject of repeated and most attentive
examinations by Mr. Watson and myself, without enabhng us to detect any appreciable difference between it and
the copious suites of European, Asiatic, and North American specimens, with which it was compared. Capt. King’s
plant, referred to a variety of it, is smaUer and nearer E. alpinum of the northern regions, or E. confertifolium of
Lord Auckland’s group ; its stems are simple aud prostrate below, the leaves oblong and obtuse. The stigmas of
all the states are clavate and blunt.
After examining the species of Epihbium which inhabit the Cordfllera between Chih and North America, I
find, in aU latitudes, states of one plant, which seems to prevafl throughout the American continent from Canada to
Fuegia, and wliich I have little hesitation in referring to B. tetragonum, whilst varieties of it also occur, very similar
to other European species. The Falkland Island plant is certainly a native of tho Andes of CWli, specimens from
whence have been described under the name oi B. pedicellare by Presl. and B. dentiailatim by Iluiz and Pavon,
The same locality affords E. alpinum, of the Botanical Miscellany (vol, iii, p, 309,), which I can neither distinguish
from the British nor from a Tasmanian plant, and which is possibly a state of the Port Famine variety ; in the
latter locality the B. alpinum, if it be that species, assumes a much larger and wholly different appearance. The
E. Bonplandiamim, H, B, K, of Peru (in Herh, Hook,), seems only a very slight variety of B. tetragonum, allied to the E.
aUinifolimn of the Scottish Alps, whose claims to specific distinction have been doubted. From the Andes of Colombia
Professor Jameson has sent a specimen quite simüar to Capt, King’s from Port Famine, The Chilian E. tetragonum
grows abundantly on the mountains of Mexico, and is the B. Bonplandiunum of Galeotti (n, 3018, 3028, and 3050),
and also apparently the E. Mexieanum of Linden (n, 633,), Further north, in America, the true E. tetragonum
is very common on the mountains of Carolina and the southera states, and probably throughout the low grounds of
the same latitudes, under the name o iE . eoloratum, Muhl,; in the British possessions it is seen as far north as Lat, 64°,
B. confertifolium, though very dissimilar in general appearance from B. tetragonum, is not so in reality, Mr,
Watson remarks of it, that a more luxuriant growth of the stem, increasing the distance between the leaves, would
bring it almost to Capt, King’s specimens, and that gentleman has also cultivated Scottish plants of B. alpinum,
hai-dly distinguishable from E. confertifolium. The latter, he adds, holds the same position betw-een the Port
Famine and the British B. tetragonum, that B. origanifolium does in Em-ope between B. alpinum and E. tetragonum.
When such parallel cases of difficulty occur in opposite hemispheres, and in a genus, some of whose species are
common to and equally variable in both countries, and when it is further remembered that B. alpinum and
E. tetragonum, with many intermediate states, are seen in Tasmania, we may well ask whether there really exist any
limits between these and some other supposed species of this intricate genus.
Few persons, accustomed to the study of the British, or even the European Bpilolia, are aware of the difficulty
of recognizing certain aspects of the w-ell-known species iu Asia and America, and still less of the gradations that
connect, in the southern regions, what appear abundantly distmct in the northern. We are too opt to assume the
well-marked form of a plant, occm-ring within the nai-row sphere of om- own researches, as the standard for that
species ; neglecting the obvious truth, that the limits within which any organized production may vary, ai-e more confined
in one locality than in another. Before a native of so nairow an area as Great Britain can be pronounced a species,
it must be known under all the phases it assumes in every other part of the globe it inhabits, and its most closely
allied congeners should be carefully studied. This remark applies particularly to the Bpilolia, which are equally
abundant in the southern quai-ters of the globe and in the northern, and some of whose species are alike common
and variable in both.
XV. HALORAGEÆ, Br.
1. MYE IOPHYL LUM, Vaill.
1. Mïiuopiiyllum elatiuoides. Gaud.; monoicum v. dioicum, foliis 3 -5 -n atim verticiilatis inferioribus
capillaceo-multifidis superioribus brevioribus lanceolatis ovatis v. late oblongis interdum oppositis integerrimis
dentatis pinnatifidisve, floribus S-andris, carpellis breviusculis late oblongis dorso convexis glaberrimis. M.
elatinoides, Gaud, in Ann. Sc. Na t. vol. v. p, 105. et in Frege. Yog. Bot. p. 480. D ’ Uroille in Mém. Soe. L in n .
Paris, vol. iv. p. 618. BC. Prodr. vol. iii. p. 6 8 . M. tematnm, Gaud., I f Urv. et BC. 1. c. Hook, et Arn.
Bot. Miscell. vol. iii. p. 314.
H.4B. FaUdaud Islands ; in fresli-water lagoons and running streams, abundant ; Gavdiclmvd, B ’ Urville
and J.D .H .