Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/119

Campbell's Island.] denticulatis. Setula palea inferiore A brevior, longissime plurnoso-barbata ; pilis strictis, sericeis, flosculo sequilongis. Squamula 2, oblique ovato-lanceolatae, acuminatae. Stamina 3; flamentis breviusculis ; antkeris subexsertis, lineari-oblongis, strarnineis. Ovarium late ovatmn ; stylis basi approsimatis; siigmatibus exsertis, phimosis.

Of this plant I have but very imperfect specimens, nor could I anywhere detect more of it than one or two culms which grew in the highest parts of the island, from whence the snow had but recently disappeared.

Tribe AVENACE.E, Kwdh.

3. TKISETUM, Kunth.

1. Tiusetuji suhspicatum, Beauv. Agrost. p. 88. Brown in Parry's First Voyage, App. p. 292. Richardson's App. to FrauMin's 1st Voy. p. 3, and in Franklin's Journal, p. 731. Hooker, App. to Parry's 2nd Toy. p. 409. App. to 2>rd Voy. p. 129. Flor. Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 244. T. phleoides, Kunth Gram., vol. i. p. 101. Agrost. p. 295, (non Trinius). Avena phleoides, I/Urv. Fl. Ins. Mai. in Trans. Soc. Linn. Par. vol. iv. p. 001. Brongniart in Buperrey, Voy. Bot. Phan. p. 29.

Hab. Campbell's Island; on ledges of rocks at the very summits of the mountains, abundant.

I have very closely compared numerous specimens of this plant with most copious suites of authentically named forms of the T. suhspicatum from the northern hemisphere, without being able to detect any specific difference. In Europe and Northern America the plant varies much in size, in being of a slender or robust habit and hi the form of its panicle; similar discrepancies are not observed in Campbell's Island, where its habitat is very limited ; but in the Falkland Islands and in Tierra del Fuego it assumes various forms, whence it has been described by Admiral D'Urville as a different species, which was adopted by Brongniart with much doubt. The T. molle, Kunth and Trinius, {Avena mollis, Mich.), is decidedly only a variety of larger growth and may be added to the other synonyms already included by Kunth under this species. Few grasses have so wide a range as this, nor am I acquainted with any other Arctic species which is equally an inhabitant of the opposite polar regions. In Europe it is found at a very great elevation on the Alps and on the Pyrenees, as also in Lapland. In Asia it frequents the Altai range, the northern parts of Siberia and Kamtschatka, from whence it crosses to Kotzebue's Sound, and is apparently more generally distributed through Arctic America (than in the Old World), from the utmost limi ts of Polar vegetation in Melville Island, throughout Greenland and the Arctic Islands, the Arctic sea-coast, Labrador, Canada, and the Pocky Mountains. We have specimens in no way different from some of the European states, which were gathered on the Andes of Peru by Mr. McLean, and it is a particularly common grass on the sea-coast and upland regions of the Falkland Islands, forming a considerable portion of the pasturage. In Fuegia and South Chili it is probably no less abundant.

Tribe FESTUCACE.E, Kmth.

4. BKOMUS, L.

1. BaoMUS antarctieus, Hook., fil. ; glaberrimus, panicula inclinata subcoarctata, ramis rnultifloris, spiculis ovato-oblongis 6-8-floris, flosculis pedicellatis basi sericeo-barbatis, arista valida palea longiore, foliis involutis culmuin elaturn superautibus. (Tab. LIY.)

Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island ; a common grass upon the lulls, forming large tussacks, particularly at an elevation of between 800 and 1200 feet.

Gramen elaturn, 3-4 pedale, ceespites supra terrain 2-3 ped. diametr. formans. Culmi ascendentes, validi, fascicidati ; pars infima prostrata, subrepens, crassa, lignosa, 3-4 unc. longa, diametro digiti minoris, uudique fibras crassas tortas intertextas emittens, reliquiis rigidis foliormn ernortuorum obtecta, simplex v. divisa ; culmi