54 FLORA ANTARCTICA. [Aucìdand and
versus apices purpurascentibus. Corolla campanulata, 5-fida, subrotata, 4-5 lin. longa; tubo brevi, urceolato,
pallide flavo, supra medium glanduloso, glandulis 5 majusculis, orbiculatis, depressis, pallide viridibus ; lobis
obovato-oblongis, obtusis, concavis, integerrimis, æstivatione dextrorsum contortis, tubo duplo longioribus,
albidis, basì macula nendsque latis pulcherrime rubris, siccitate pallide flavìs. Stamina tubo corollæ infra faucem
inserta, lobis glandulisque alterna, inclusa ; filamentis validis, lineari-subulatis, elongatis, erectis, purpureis, apicibus
arcuatis, primum incurvis, demum recurvis ; anthei'is versatilibus, oblongo-quadratis, violaceis, loculis
linearì-oblongis, rimis longitudinalibus antice dehiscentibus, post anthesin (oh apicem filamenti reflexum) postici
». Poìlen stramineum, elliptlcum, læve, 3-lohatum, utrinque subacutum. Ovarium lineari-lanceolatum, basi
in pedicellum breve contractum, superne in stylum validum, gradatim attenuatum, compressum, 1-loculare, pluri-
ovulatum ; ovula biserialia, placentis suturalibus fuuiculis brevissimis adnexìs, anatropis ; stigmata 2, patentia,
carpophyllìs contraria, subcapitata. Capsula lineari-oblonga, v. lanceolata, ^ unc. longa, submembranaceo-
coriacea, valvis planiusculis, dorso medio sulcatis. Semina numerosa, minuta, biserialia, globosa, subangu-
la ta ; testa membranacea, pallide fusca, albumini carnoso appressa.
This elegant little species is one of the most attractive plants on the exposed hills, flowering copiously in
November and December. The variety /3. is rather uncommon and seldom flowers ; its appearance is more that
of a large leafy state than of perfect or characteristic specimens. The y. I have never found in flower, and it
may prove a distinct species, though the roots are annual and its leaves of the same nature as some of the larger
specimens of G. concinna. The former of these varieties approaches the G. montana, Forst., of New Zealand,
Tasmania and Australia, itself a very variable plant, according to our own and Forster’s original specimens
in the British Museum, and to the description of Forster quoted by Richard (Fl. Nov. Zel. p. 203), and the
works of Brown and Grisehach (Gen. et Sp. Gentian, p. 235). All the states of the latter howæver differ from
this in the much larger flowers, acute lobes of the corolla, and long peduncles of the flowers. The present
plant affords further a proof of a certain similarity in the whole Flora of the south circumpolar regions, a peculiarity
more strongly marked in the analogous latitudes of the Northern hemisphere, where large tracts of land
with a concomitant vegetation are situated nearer the pole. I must confess that I have much difficulty in recognising
more than one species in Tasmania, which is itself closely allied to several South Chilian and Patagonian
plants, as G. Patagonica, Griseb., G. multicaulis. Gill, and G. diffusa, H. B. K.
I am here anxious to correct an error I have fallen into, in considering the G. Grisebachii (Hook. fil. in Ic.
PL t. 636) as distinct from G. montana, Forst. ; I have lately had the opportunity of examining large suites of
specimens of the true plant, of which the G. Grisebachii is decidedly a small state. And so also with regard to
the G. hellidifolia (Ic. PI. t. 635) ; though different from the ordinary states of Forster’s G. saxosa, and especially
from the specimens from which he made his drawings, it is not specifically distinct from other states which have
been gathered by Forster, but which, when the G. hellidifolia was published, I had not the opportunity of
examining.
Plate XXXV. Fig. 1, a flower ; fig. 2, corolla removed from the same ; fig. 3, corolla laid open ; figs. 4, 5
and 6, stamens and anther ; fig. 7, pollen ; fig. 8, ovarium ; fig. 9, one valve of do. and ovules ; fig. 10, capsule ;
fig. 11, seeds :—all magnified.
2 . G e n t ia n a (An d ico la , Griseb.) cerina, H o o k . fil. ; p e r en n is, caule p rostrato v a g e ramoso,
ramis ad ap ic es a d sc en d en tib u s, fo liis c a r tila g in eo -ca rn o sis o b o v a to -sp a th u la tis o b tu s is vel r e tu sis
.3-nervlis in p e tio lum la tum a tten u a tis, floribus in te r folia sum m a con fertis se ssilib u s, corolla late
camp anula ta subro ta ta lo b is o b lon g o -lan c e o la tis o b tu sis a lb id is p u rp u re o -v en o sis, tu b o g lan d u lis
d ep r e ssis 5 , an th e r is p o s t a n th e sin ex tro rsis. (T a b . X X X V I.)
H a b . L o rd A u ck lan d ’s g ro u p ; n ea r th e sea on ro ck y isle ts in Rendezvous H arb o u r.
Radix fusiformis, elongata, 3 -4 unc. longa, cortice crasso, fusco, transversim rugoso tecta, infeme divisa.
CamphelVs Islands.] FLORA ANTARCTICA.
superne plantis junioribus multiceps, ad collum foUosa, vetustioribus caules plunmos vel solitaries emittens.
Caules prostrati, elongati, 4 unc. ad pedem longi, 2-3 lin. diametro, crassi, subsueculenti, teretes siccitate subangulati.
e basi ramosi, per totam longitudinein foliosi v. inferne nudi, e foliis inferionbus decidms annulati,
internodiis i - J uncialibus, superne iuerassati, apicibus ascendentibus, ramis abbreviatis sæpius flonferis. Foha
numerosa. inferiora, præsertim exemplaribus ramosis junioribusque, latiora, rosulata, cirea collum stellatim
patentia, omnia plus minusve recurva, late spathulata, obtusa, retusa, v. emarginata, marginibus integevnm.s,
interdum recurvis, l - Q unc. longa. i - i S'“ ™ reticulatim venosa, nervis subtus prominulis. læte
sed pallide viridia, nitida, purpureo picta. siccitate fusea et nigrescentia, interdum membranacea; petiolo lato,
superne piano, subtus convexo, deorsum dilatato, semiamplexicauli, cum caule articulate. Infiorescentia verosimiliter
paniculata, sed ramis obsoletis et pedunculis abbreviatis, hinc flores u t videtur solitarii v. bmi, et inter
folia siibsessiles. Flores, solummodo plantis junioribus visi, iisque ramis caulibusque abbreviatis. Calyx cam-
panulatus, S-fidus. segmentis late linearibus, obtusis, corolla X brevioribus, 3-nerviis, apicibus recurvis. Corolla
late campauulata, subrotata, 4-5 lin. longa. albida, 5-fida, lobis late obovato-oblongis, obtusis, concavis, 5-G
nerviis, nervis rubro-purpureis ;—srfciida«s, staminibus, ovarioqne u t in G. concinna.
During cur stay in Lord Auckland’s group 1 much regretted being unable in my drawings, to imitate the pellucid
and w x v appearance, especially of the flowers and leaves of this most beautiful plant, to which in other
respects tbe artist has done ample justice. I t bears nearly the same relation to the G. saxosa, Forst., as the former-
described species does to ff. inonlana. Though placed by Dr. Grisebaeh (in his excellent Essay on Gentianeoe in
separate sections of that genus, there appears to me to be but little to remove these two species far fromone another
except the annual root of one. As is the case with G. saxosa, the leaves of this are variable in breadth, but not
to the same extent, and it entirely differs from th a t plant in the prostrate habit of growth, very short peduncles
of the flowers, and in the broader and shorter corollas, which are not much longer than the lobes of the calyx.^ I he
anthers in all the New Zealand as in the Tasmanian species are versatile on the apex of the filament, which is
curved and at first projects forward ; after the discharge of the pollen, or rather the first dehiscence of the anthers,
the apex of the filaments immediately becomes erect and then reflexed, whence in the expanded flowers the
anthers are almost invariablv found to bo extrorse. Although Gentians are seldom white-flowered as species,
this and the former are decidedly so, with red or red-purple a t the base of the segments, and the veins of the
same colour ; tbe pure blue of the European species is unknown amongst those of these regions, or of the higher
latitudes of South America. Indeed I think that few genera display so full a series of colours in the flowers as
this does- red blue, yellow and white are all exhibited in it. with many of the intermediate compound tints.
Yellow a id white are rare in the regions of the Gentians, but almost invai-iably present ; the red spec.es are
nearly confined to the Andes of South America and New Zealand. Amongst Dr. Jameson’s ’ Botanical Notes on
the Flora of the Andes of Peru and Colombia’ I find tbe foUowing interesting remark; ’’ Of sixteen species of Gentian
with which I am acquainted, one-half are red, four purple, two blue, one yellow, and one white.” (Bot.
J o u rn vol ii p. 649.) Their inferior lim it u nder th e lin e w e find from the same source to be 7So2 feet, and they
ascend from thence nearly to the limits of perpetual snow on Cotopaxi* ; they do not in South America descend
to the level of the sea in a lower latitude tl.an 54° or thereabouts, where however there are no alpine spec.es,
thouo-h the snow-line does not descend below 4000-3500 fe e tf. In the Himalayah, where the species are all
blue-°flowered, one species has been gathered by my friend Mr. Edgeworth near llatlia Kona, on the MiinaPass,
at -an elevation of 16,000 feet, near the limit of perpetual snow ; and another reaches in lat. 31° N. the altitude of
« 15,646 feet. Jameson, 1. c. p. 657. The mean lower limit of perpetual snow on the Andes under tlie
equator is’ at an altitude of 15,748 feet, according to Humboldt; and 15,496 from the mean on six mountains
nieasured by Dr. Jameson.
t King, in Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. vol. i. p. 165. Darwin, Journ. p. 277.