■ "I
¡ i i l
■ i l l
l i i l
liil
!! j |
L i |
pill
pM I
l i l i
u t
i i .
friend Mr. Darwin, it is advisable to sum np the principal facts connected witb tbeir bistory, adding some little
from personal observation. These remarks will be tbe more appropriately introduced liere, from tbe two principal
species having been first imported into England by the Antai-ctic Expedition, and now promising to become useful
and ornamental additions to our forests ; as, also, from thefr geographical range having been used as an indication
of the limits of the Antarctic Flora.
The Fagus Antarctka has always been recognized as a true Beech, from the very marked resemblance its
deciduous foliage bears to tbat of the European F. sghatica. The other common Fuegian species, F. betuloidcs,
with coriaceous leaves of a deep green hue very similar to those of the Scottish Birch, was. up to the discovery of ito
flowers, considered to be a Betula. Tbe habit of both species, however, is essentially tliat of the Beech, and so
are the form of trunk, smooth bark, and especially the spreading ramification and lioiizontnl divaricating ramuli ;
whUst their flowers and fruit resemble so closely in all bnt size, those of the European Fagus sghatica, that I coiisideé
them as undoubted congeners of that plant.
I have elsewhere (vid. ante p. 277) alluded to the very common eiTor of holding the locality in which a certain
species particularly abomids, to be the principal habitat of the order or genus to whicb it belongs ; this often
arises from attaching a greater importance to the spread of the species than that of the genns. Naturalists unacquainted
with the range of the Beeches, wUl bo surprised to hear that they are more characteristic of tho temperate
and cold latitudes of the southern, than of the northern hemisphere, even in the proportion of five to one. Thus
one species alone is European, and one American ; two are found on the mountains of Java ; one is nJiaracteristic of
the Alps of Tasmania, where the only Antarctic representatives of the Australian J ta -a are found ; four inhabit the
high mountains of the northern or lower levels in the middle and southern Islands of New Zealand ; aud, lastlv,
as many as seven * have been described from Chili and Fuegia.
Of the seven so called Cliiban and Fuegian species, three are well marked, and afford instructive examples of
the succession of species in proceeding northward from Cape Horn ; they are the F. Antarctica, heluloides, and
obliqua -, the others, which may be varieties of the above, though from the want of copious suites of good specimens
I advance this opinion with much hesitation, are F. Pmnilio, Pocpp. and En d l, F.proeera, P. and E., F. Bmnbegi,
Mirb., and F. alpina, P. and E.
The Fagus Antarctka, justly so named, ascends even at Cape Horn much higher than F. betuloidcs, and nearly
to the summits of the mountains, which are perhaps 1000 feet below tbe assumed level of perpetual snow in that latitude,
while at the sea it forms much the larger tree of the two. Supposing the continent of America to have been
produced indefinitely to the southward, in a free ocean, the F. Autarclka would be found extending to as high a
parallel as 63° S., whilst the F. betuhides would cease at the 00th degi-ee; assuming that both species followed the
same ratio of ascent that very many other Cordillera plants do, wliich ascend from the level of the sea in Fucria to
a considerable elevation in a lower latitude.
Fagus betuhides, though by far the most prevalent species in Hermite Island, and, indeed, tlirougliout Fuegia,
has its principal parallel about the Strait of Magalhaens, where it becomes a very large tree. It forms the prevailing
feature in the scenery of Tierra del Fuego, especially in winter time, from having persistent, evergreen leaves, and
from its upper limit being sharply defined and contrasting with the dazzling snow that covers the matted bnt naked
branches of the H, rtiiferefim, which immediately succeeds it. Its upper limit at Cape Horn (lat. 66°) is about
800 feet ; in tlie northem parts of Tiena del Fuego it reaches 1,400 feet ; and, if the F. alpirui, P. and E., he a
state of the same species in its most northem locality, its level in lat. 36° is between 5,000 and 8,000 feet.
The folloiving notice of the dimension the Evergreen Beech attains in the Strait of Magalhaens, is extracted
from Capt. King’s excellent ‘ Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle’ (p.576). “ At Port Famine and in the ncigh-
* An eighth, F. glutinosa, Poepp., is no Fagtis at all, but, as my friend Mr. Miers assures me (and be lias
examined authentic specimens in AI. Delcsscrt’s Herbarium), a species of Fucrgphia.
Falklands, e tc ] FLORA ANTAECTICA. 347
bourhood, the Evergreen Beech grows in the greatest abundance and reaches a very large size. Trees of tbis species
three feet in diameter, arc abundant; of four feet there are many; and tbcrc is one tree (perhaps the very same
noticed by Coimnodoro Byron), whicb measures seven feet in diameter for sevcutccn feet above the roots, and tlieii
divides into three large braiichcs, each of which is three feet through. This venerable tree seemed to be sound, but from
onr experience of several others that were cut down, might be expected to prove rotten in the centre. This temleney
to decaying in the licart may be attributed to the coldness of the schistose suli-soil upon which the trees are rooted,
as well as the perpetual moisture of the climate.
The wood of these trees Capt. King describes as being heavy and far too brittle for masts, or even boat-hook
staves ; but it cuts up into tolerable plunks, whicb, if seasoned, might serve for ship-building. During our sojoiirn in
Hermite Island, Capt. Boss caused several thousand small trees, of both species, to be felled and barked; these
we transported to the Falkland Islands, in which trcc-less country they were highly prized for roofing houses. Sic.
The deciduous species appeared to afford the better wood of the two.
A more striking contrast between two so very closely allied plants, cannot well be imagined, thau between
F. Antarctica and F. betuhides, arising from the evergreen foliage of the latter being of a totally diflerent texture and
aspect from that of tbe former. Surely so strongly marked a difference between otherwise very nearly allied
species, gi-owiug side by side under perfectly slmUar conditions, is a strong argument in favour of their being
originally separate creations. We see. too. bow the adaptation of particular fonns of vegetation to certain climaie.s,
even in tliis remote quarter of the globe, is exemplified in these trees; though both do gi'OW together abundantly,
they still have their preferences, the evergreen glossy foliage prevailing on the western coast, where the climate is
ilamp and equable, whilst the deciduous-leaved plant seeks the heights more exposed to the vicissitudes of the
weather, or the drier eastern parts of Fuegia, where the F. betuhides will not succeed. So it is with us iu Great
Britaiu; our glossy-leaved evergreens, whether native or introduced, thrive best iu the climate of the west coast,
where the summers are colder, the winters wanner, and all the seasons more humid than they arc on the east,
Tho third species o{ Fagus, the F. obliqua, replaces F. Antarctica in South Cliili, occupying the flanks of the
Andes, between the altitudes of 1,000 aud 5,000 feet, where it is the prevailing forest-tree. It appears to inhabit
tlie level of the sea iu the parallel of the Strait of Magalliaens, and is probably the third species of Beccli alluded to
by Capt. King (1. c. p. 576), for that voyager does not seem to have distinguished the P. Pmnilio as a species.
Tlic accompanying cut will explain better than words, the order of succession in latitude and in elevation that
South American Fagi follow. Their southern ranges may be ascertained with tolerable precision, the exact altitiule
they attain iu the two northem positions is more doubtful. The positions taken are, commencing from the southward,
1st,' Hermite Island, lat. 56°; 2nd, Strait of Magalhaens. lat. 54°; 3rd, Antuco in Chili, hit. 86° 40'. The upper
curve indicates the lower level of perpetual snow; the others, the upper limit of tho tree wliose name is found
immediately under.
From the want of a suite of specimens I cannot speak with much confidence of the Cliilian species, F. alpina
and F. Pnmilio, the first appears, from the plate and description, a variety of F. betuhides, and, from occupying the
position that F. betuhides would hold relatively to the others in South Chili, I have introduced it os such into the cut.
The F. PumiUo is oven more probably a variety of F. Antarctka. Both are said to occupy gi-eat heights iu South
Chili, the latter indeed only existing there as a stimted tree. There are still two other South Chilian species,
F.procera, P. and B., and F. Dmubegi,* Mirb.; they inhabit the level of Ibe sea in the parallel of 41°, The
first I am inclined to regard as a variety of F. obliqua, or rather a large-leaved state of that plant descending to the
coast; the second is a similar form of F. betuloidcs. If ray supposition prove correct, both species afibrd examples
* T h i s is one kind of “ Eoble” of Capt. King's Narrative (p. 280); in speaking of the rvoods of Chiloe, he
says, “ Uoble, (Fagus obliqua, Mirb.), is a large tree, and, from the durable quality of its timber, considered tbe