!
¡i;:,
22 FLORA ANTARCTICA.
[Auckland and Cam p h e lV s I s la n d s .] FLORA ANTARCTICA.
leaves, it assumes a spiny appearance. The leaves are patent, inch long, scarcely coriaceous; the stipules
hairy and ciliated at the margins.
5. C o p r o sm a c iliata. Ho o k , fil.; fruticosa, ram is pilosis, foliis o p positis solitariis vel fascicula
tis su bmem b ran ace is elliptico-lanceolatis o b tu sis v. su b a cu tis b asi in p etio lum perbi'evem a tten u a tis
ciliatis, petiolo costaque su b tu s p ræ c ip u e h irsu tis, stip u lis apice b a rb a tis.
/S. v irg a ta , laxe foliosa, ram is v irg a tis te iiu ib u s.
H a b . L o rd A u ck la n d ’s g r o u p ; in ravines, alt. 5 0 0 -1 0 0 0 feet. A I n Campbell’s Is lan d , in
shad)’ s itu a tio n s neai* th e sea.
A common shrub, especially in Lord Auckland’s group, where it forms a densely branched bush, growing
from 8-10 feet high. The Campbell’s Island specimens again are very lax, twiggy, and sparingly leafy; and
the leaves, which in «. a re -l-f inch long, are in $. generally under that size. I haveseenneither flower nor fruit.
The bushes of the various species of Copros7na compose a dense and impenetrable thicket, on the margins of the
narrow gulleys formed by water-courses on the faces of the hills. Becoming stunted and much branched from
the violence of the perennial gales, they offer as powerful an obstacle to the traveller here as the beeches do in
Tierra del Fuego. In both cases it is almost equally impossible to penetrate them ; but, extraordinary as it
may appear, their branches are so gnarled and densely matted, that their flat summits will often bear the human
weight, and almost admit of walking upon them.
6 . C o p r o sm a repens. H o o k . fil. ; fru ticu lo sa longe rep en s ram o sissim a g lab e rrim a , ram is ra -
m u lisq u e b rev ib u s, foliis par^^s coriaceo-carnosis rig id is ovatis in p e tio lum brevem la tiu scu lum atte -
n u a tis su p ra p lan is v. concavis su b tu s convexis, stip u lis b rev ib u s o b tu s is carnosis u n a cum petiolis
co n n a to -v ag in a tis, floribus solitariis te rm in a lib u s baccis 2— 4 p y ren is. (Ta b . X V I.)
H a b . L o rd A u ck la n d ’s an d Campbell’s Is la n d ; common from th e sea to th e to p s o f th e hills.
Caules pedales et ultra, vage repentes, fibras tenues ramosas ad axillas foliorum emittentes, cortice cinereo
spongioso sæpe obtecti, crassitie pennæ passerinæ. Folia breviter petiolata, horizontaliter patentia, conferta,
crassiuscula, ovata v. elliptica, obtusa, cóncava, nítida, enervia, sub. 3 lin. longa. Stipule late ovatæ, obtusæ,
glaberrimæ. Flores ad apices ramorum solitarii, sessiles, verosimiliter dioici. Calycis limhus profunde 4-par-
titus ; segmentis lineari-ovatis obtusis. Corolla (in exemplaribus Tasmanicis solummodo mihi visa) tubulosa,
subcampanulata, paululum curvata ; tubo elongato, ore quadrifido ; segmentis ovatis, subacutis. Stamina 4 ;
/Yameniis longissimis, exsertis; crwM(?r¿« majusculis, pendulis, linearibus, ungue uncinato terminatis. Styli 2,
longe exserti, pubescentes. Bacca (in exempl. Aucklandicis) subglobosa, omnino sessilis, diámetro 3 lin., pallide
vel intensius rubra, carnosa et aquosa, intus 2-4-pyrena. AYîcu/æ crustaceæ, 1-loculares, 1-spermæ, única
V. duobus i . majoribus. erectum ; ¿esía fusca, membranácea ; albumine czxnoso. Fwiryn majusculus ;
radícula bilo próxima, elongata, terete ; coíyledonibus latis.
This plant is anparently identical with a species collected on Middlesex Plains, Tasmania, by R. C. Gunn,
Esq. ; a remarkable circumstance, as its low, procumbent mode of growth gives it the appearance of being an
Antarctic form of the genus. The Auckland Island specimens I gathered with young and ripe fruit only, the
corolla and styles having invariably fallen away. These latter, as well as the stamens, I have drawn and described
from Mr. Gunn’s specimens, fully believing the two plants to be the same. I must however here r e mark,
that other states from either locality may be found to possess unexpected characters of sufficient importance
to keep them distinct. I am not aware of any other species exhibiting 4 nucules.
The prevalence of Rubiacee in these islands is a very singular fact in botanical geography ; ranking a.s
they do in number of species next only to Composite among Dicotyledonous plants, and almost equalling
them both numerically and in the amount of space they occupy. In Antarctic America they are represented
by a very few Stellate, which group is here entirely absent. As no other order exhibits so remarkable an
excess, they probably balance the strangely disproportionate want of Composite, which a])pear to have almost
as few representatives in proportion to the mass of exogenous vegetation as any other island. Comparing the
dicotyledonous vegetation of the Falkland Islands with that of Lord Auckland’s, it will be seen, th a t in the
former the Composite are to the other Dicot. as 1 : 2*8, and tbat Rubiacee (Galium') are to Compos, as 1 : 21 : but
in the latter group, Compos, are to the other Dicot. only as 1 : 4-5, and Rubiacee to Composite as 1 : T 6 ! If
in each we add these, two Nat. Orders together, it will be found, that in the Falklands the proportion which
the sum of Ruhiaceoe and Composite bear to otber Dicotyledonous plants, is as 1 : 2-7, and in Lord Auckland’s
group as 1 : 2*3 : proving, tbat as far as these two remote localities are comparable, Rubiacee only balance in the
latter the want of what is generally, in aU climates, the preponderating natural order. This is one only of many
equally singular proofs, which a little patient investigation may deduce, th a t a harmony exists and may be
traced in the %ægetation of remote climates, whose Floras are otherwise totally dissimilar.
P l a t e XVI. Fig. 1, a ripe berry, nat. size-, fig. 2, transverse section of do., showing the nucules ; fig. 3,
nucules removed ; fig. 4, transverse section of the latter, showing the seed ; fig. 5, lateral, and fig. 6, front view
of a seed ; fig. 7, vertical section of do. aH magnified.
B. Flowering portion from Tasmanian specimens, nat. size ; fig. 1, a male flower; fig. 2, a female flower :—
both magnified.
1. N e r t e r a depressa, B an k s in Goertn. i. t. 26. et Icon. in ed . P la n t. N o v . Z e l. in M u s . B r it .
t. 22. F orst. P ro d r. n. 501. Sm ith , Icon. ined. t. 28. Carmichael in L in n . T ra n s, vol. xii. p . 505.
Gaudich. Flor. des Ile s Malouines in A n n . Sc. N a t. vol. v. p . 104. Gaud, in F re y c in e t, Voy. p . 135.
lyU i'v ille , Flor. In s. Ma i. in A n n a l. Soc. L in n . P a r is , vol. iv. p . 612. P e t. Thouars, Flo r. T rist.
d A c u n . p . 42. t. 10. DeC. P ro d r . vol. iv. p. 451. A . Cunn. Flor. N o v . Z e l. 1. c. p . 2 0 8 .
H a b . L o rd A u ck lan d ’s g ro u p ; c re e p in g am o n g st moss in th e woods, wh ere its b rig h t red
berries give it a p re tty ap p e aran ce .
My specimens are unfortunately not in flower ; they however entirely resemble the figures of N . dep7-essa
above quoted, and agree with numerous Falkland Island and other southern specimens of that plant withw’hich
I have compared it. In Mr. Cunningham’s ‘ Flora of New Zealand,’ its precise habitat is omitted ; but it is
inserted in a MS. copy of that ‘ Flora’ which formed part of my library at sea. There he mentions the “ Falls
of the Keri-Keri river ” as the only locality in which he gathered it. In botanizing over th a t spot repeatedly
in September and October 1841, in company with Mr. Colenso, we often met with Cunningham’s plant, both
there and afterwards in other moist places near cataracts ; it is however entirely different from the true N . depressa,
being much smaller in all its parts, with narrower and more acuminated leaves. The berries of the
Auckland Island specimens are very much vertically depressed, and their structure is entirely th a t of the genus
Coprosma.
XV. COMPOSITÆ, V a ill.
Tribe S E N E C IO N ID E Æ , Less.
1. T R IN E U R O N , / /o o i . /L
Capitulum sub-12-florum ; floribus exterioribus 8-10, foemineis, 2 serialibus ; interioribus abortu masculis ;
omnibus u t videtur tubulosis. Involucrum octophyllum, subbiseriale, squamis inter se subæqualibus oblongo-
lanceolatis obtusis trinerviis, nervis latiusculis pellucidis transversim septatis. Receptaculum nudum, minutum,
convexiusculum. Fn. Foem. Corolla tubulosa, basi globosa, medio cylindracea et constricta, ore obliquo 4-den-
I s I'