FLORA ANTARCTICA. \Fuegia, the
Valparaiso, and Concepcion, again at Yaldiria, finally disappearing at the Chonos Archipelago. Though we are
now fahly acquainted with the botany of America south of lat. 33°, a more complete collection from the coast and
mountains between the southem extreme of Chiloe and Cape Tres Montes is wantmg ; the proportion of new
species would probably be small, but the investigation would exhibit the range of many Yahhviau and Fuegian plants,
not contained in the invaluable Herbarium of JL . Darwin, the only naturahst whose good fortune it has been to
visit and explore that unfrequented line of coast.
3. U n c i n i a Macloviana, Gaud., in Ann. Sc. N a t. vol. v. p. 99, et in Eh-eyc. Voy. Bot. p. 412. Kunth,
En. P la n t, vol. ii. p. 526.
H a b . Falkland Islands j Gaudichaud.
When botanizing in the Falkland Islands early in the ivinter of 1841, I found what I considered to be this
plant, grooving amongst gi-ass in. wet spongy bogs ; it was, however, in a very bad state, and the specimens, unfortunately,
lost.
Brongniart unites this with XI. phleoides, Pers.; but J l. Kuuth has kept it distinct.
4 . U ncinia Kingii, Boott ; spica capitata fusca nuda apice mascula, stigmatibus 3, perigyniis (arista
brevioribus) lanceolatis superne augustiori cylindraceis ore truncato oblique fisso ferrugineis glabris squama
lanceolata fusco-fen-uginea nervo palHdo angustioribus longioribusque. Boott. (T a b . CXLV.)
H a b . Strait of JIagalhaens ; P o rt Famine, Capt. King.
Cæspitosa. Radix repens, fibroso-lanatus. Culmus 2-4 poll., lævissimus, sulcatus, basi vaginis foborum castaneis
laceratis tectus. Folia augusta, involuta, hinc filiforaiia, culmo breviora, apice margineque scahra. Spica
5-7 lin. longa, 3—6 lin. lata, congesto-capitata, apice floscuhs masculis paucis inconspicuis, basi foemineis 9-16
instructa. Squamæ foemineæ lanceolatæ, ìnfima mueronulata. Peìùgynium (cum arista, stipiteque) 4-1—5 lin. longum,
-f (ad basin) latum, superne cylindraceo-attenuatum, ore oblique fisso, fusco-ferrugineum, basi palhdum. Achænium
1 hn. long., 4- liu. latum, oblongo-triquetrum, pallidum, basì styh incrassato apiculatum. Arista 4-44- lin. longa,
canaliculata, palhda, superne ferruginea, imo apice dilatata. Stylus inclusus. Stigmata 3, brevia. Boott.
P late CXLV. Fig. 1, scale and male flower; f y . 2, scale and female flower; Jiy. 3, female flower, removed
from the perigynium :—all ?
L. GRAMINEÆ,
1. ALOPECURUS, L.
1. Alopecurus alpinus, Smith, Engl. Bot. 1 .1 1 2 6 . Ku n th , En. P lant, vol. i. p. 2 5 .
Var. ß, aristatus. A. alpinus, Trinius, Ic. Gram. vol. i. t. 38. A. pratensis, Bank s et Sol. in Mus.
Banks. A. pratensis, var. spica ovata ; Ledebour, in Herb. Hook. A. Baicalensis, Tm'z. in Herb. Hook.
A. Antarcticus, Vahl, Symb. vol. ii. p. 18. Brongn. in Buperrey, Voy. Bot. p. 16. Kunth, Agrost. p. 25.
A. Magellanicus, Lamk. Illu st. Gen. vol. i. p. 168. Gaudichaud, in Ann. Sc. N a t. vol. v. p. 100, et in Freyc.
Voy. Bot. p. 131. B ’ JJrville, in Mém. Soc. L in n . Paris, vol. iv. p. 600. (Tab. CXXX.)
Var. y, gracilior; spica angustiore.
H a b . From the Strait of JIagalhaens to Cape Horn, and throughout Fuegia and the Falkland Islands,
abundant, Commerson, Banks and Solander, and all succeeding voyagers. Var. ß, P o rt Gregory, Capt. King.
This plant I believe to be specifically the same with the North-European and American A. alpinus, of which
Smith considered it to be a variety. What appeared specific differences, were pointed out by JIi*. Brown (in Appendix
F a lk la n d s , e t c ] F LO EA ANTAECTICA. 371
to Parry's Is/ Voyage, p. 184.). Since the publication of the last mentioned work it has been universally looked
as an Antarctic species alone, and its close affinity with the A. pratensis, of the Northern Hemisphere was never
alluded to. The ordinary states of the latter plant have a longer and less hairy spike ; but amongst the varieties of
it which occur in North Western Asia, and N. Eastern America, there is one wholly un distinguishable from Antarctic
individuals ; and how far these may be constantly distinct appears very doubtful to me. JIi-. Brown, in drawing
up the characters of A . alpinus, alludes to his having gathered Scotch specimens with an arista twice as long as the
glumes, such is the case with all the Antarctic ones, and in Trinius’s figure of A . alpinus ; but is at variance with
Smith’s specific character, (founded on Jlr. Brown’s specimens) and with the ordinary state of the Scotch plant.
J lr. Watson, however, has gathered the same aristate variety of A. alpinus in Scotland, and has cultivated both forms
in his garden. His garden specimens of botli states are now before me, the long awned one retainmg its characters,
and the awns of the common form decidedly elongating under cultivation. The comparative length of the lamina
and vagina of the uppermost leaf, is also very variable, even iu A. alpinus, these being sometimes of equal length,
while in the Antarctic plant the lamina is sometimes considerably the shorter ; and, again, I have examined an
European specimen of A . pratensis, in which the lamina is even longer than tlie vagina. The other characters of
A.pratensis, used by JL*. Brown, are those of the glumes being acute, and villous only at the sides; this is the case
with the British examples that I have studied, but not with the Siberian, which certainly present intermediate
forms between this species, and its Fuegian congener. The Antarctic specimens vary exceedingly in size, from
four inches, to two and even three feet high ; the culms are generally tumid above the upper leaf and contract
gradually towards the panicle ; or they are slender, cylindical and terete : the lamina of the upper leaf is occasionally
far shorter than at other times, equal iu lengtli to, or much longer than its vagina. Spikes nearly cylindrical,
2-3 to 14- inches long, generaUy rather more than twice as long as broad, but now and then much narrower.
Glumes always more or less villous all over.
Admitting the fohage to afford no specific character between A . alpinus, A . pratensis, and A . Antarcticus, and
the length of the arista to be very variable in the first of these, there remains no constant character to distinguish
these tlu-ee; for between A. Antarcticus and A . pratensis the only apparent distinctions he in the villosity of the
glumes, and tbe form of the spike, differences which do not hold in Siberian specimens of the latter. I have added
a plate of the common Falkland Island state of this species.
P late CXXX. Fig. 1, glumes and floret ; Jig. 2, floret removed fi-om the glumes ; fig. 3, pistil :—all magnified-
2. P H L E U J l, L .
] . P h le um alpinum, Linn. Sp. PI. p. 8 8 . B ank s et Sol. in Bibl. Banks. Engl. Bo t. t.5 1 9 . P.
Hænkeauum, Presl, Bel. Hænk. vol. i. p. 245. Nees, in Nov. Ac t. Acad. vol. xix. Suppl. p. 140.
H a b . Strait of JIagalhaens ; P o rt Famine and Po rt Gregory, Capt. King. Good Success Bay, Banks
and Solander.
This species, which is associated in the mountains of Scotland with Alopecurus alpinus, also accompanies that
plant in the southem regions. It has been gathered by JL*. Bridges, ou the east side of the Andes of Chili, at
an elevation of 6-7,000 feet; and also on the Cordillera of Jiexico by Linden, aud by Galeotti on the Peak of
Orizaba, at an elevation of between 10 and 12,000 feet.
3. JIÜ H L EN B E R G IA , Schreb.
I . JIÜHLENBERGIA rariflora, Hook.fil.; rigida, glaberrima, panicula eflusa pauci- sub 10-flora, glumis
subæquabbus enervibus flosculo paulo brevioribus, palea inferiore lanceolata coriacea basi glaberrima in
aristam longissimam rigidam scaberulam desinente snperiorem breviorem amplectante, culmo foliate, foliis
rigidis setaceis marginibus involutis. (T a b . CXXXI.)
H a b . Gape Tres Montes ; Patch Cove, 2,000 feet, C. Barwin, Esq.