Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/260

228 3. Hahadryas Kingii, Hook. fil. ; foliis rotundatis 5-7-fidis v. multilobatis, lobis crenatis utrinque araclmoideis.

Hab. Strait of Magalliaens ; Mount Tarn ; Capt. King.

I have seen but two specimens of this very distinct species, they are male and female, the scape of the former, as in H. argentea, is one-flowered, that of the female has two flowers ; the root is elongated and tuberous, throwing out stout fibres.

4. CALTHA, Pers.

1. Caltha sagittata, Cavanilles Icon. t. 414. DC. Prodr. vol. i. p. 44. Gaud, in Aim. Sc. Nat. vol. v. p. 105. et in Freyc. Toy. Bot. p. 136. D'Urv. in Mem. Soc. Linn. Paris, vol. iv. p. 615. Hook, fil. in Bot. Mag. t. 4056. C. multicapsularis, Banks et Sol. MSS. in Bill. Banks. Forster, in Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. viii. p. 324.

Hab. Fuegia; Commerson, Banks and Solander. Port Famine; Cajjl. King and C. Darwin, Esq. Hermite Island ; /. D. H. Falkland Islands ; Gaudic/iaud, D' Urville, J. D. H., &c.

Although placed by De Candolle in a separate section of the genus from C. palustris, this will rank more properly with that species than with the two following, especially as in its English representative there is an evident tendency in the lobes of the leaf to become inflexed. The present varies exceedingly in size, according to the moisture of the situation where it grows ; the flowers are pale yellow, as in the following, and have a faint honey-like smell; the apices of the petals are slightly incrassated. A small state of it has been gathered by Mr. Bridges in Chili, in rivulets on the east side of the Andes, near the Volcano of Peteroa ; it appears to be a peculiarly southern species, not inhabiting the level of the sea in a lower latitude than the Strait of Magalhaens.

2. Caltha (Psyclirophila, DC.) appendiculata, Pers. ; lmmilis, dense csespitosa, dioica, foliis breviter petiolatis cuneatis trifidis segnientis bifidis basi appendiculis 2 linearibus instructis, pedunculo brevissimo, sepalis linearibus gradatiin attenuatis, carpellis paucis. C. appendiculata, Persoon, Enclt. vol. ii. p. 107. DC. Syst. Yeg. vol. i. p. 307. Prodr. vol. i. p. 44. D' Urville et Gaudickaud, locis citatis. C. paradoxa, Soland. MSS. in Bill. Banks. Worst, in Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. viii. p. 324.

Hab. Fuegia; Banks and Solander. Port Famine; Capt. King and C. Darwin, Esq. Hermite Island, from tbe sea to an elevation of 1200 feet; J. D. H. Falkland Islands ; Gaudickaud, D' Urville, J. D. H. Caules validi, dense crespitosi, parce ramosi, subelongati, reliquiis vaginarum foliorum obtecti, hie illic fibras crassas ernittentes. Folia crassa et carnosa ; petiolo sub i unc. longo ; vagina latissima, membranacea, superne utrinque in auricidam scariosam dilatata ; lamina basin versus biauriculata, aurieulis e pagiua superiore ortis laminae appressis linearibus emarginatis. Fl. Masc. — Pedunculitis infra florem incrassatus, sidcatus. Sepala 5, patentia, lanceolata, in caudam membranaceam attenuata, pallide flava, purpureo-marginata. Stamina plerumque 9, quorum 4 breviora diutiusque maturata. Ovaria 5, abortiva. Fl. Fceji. — Sepala ut in mare sed erecta. Stamina rudimentaria. Ovaria 5-9, compressa, cxtus papulosa. Ovala 7-8. Semina sub 3, testa pallide brunnea nitida.

A highly ciuious plant and different, almost generically, from the former, in the dioecious flowers, the few stamens and ovaria, the form of the sepals (which are thick and terminated by a long membranous apex), and especially in having the appendices of the leaves placed on the surface of the lamina. The flowers are rather pretty, though small, being pale yellow and bordered with purple, they exhale a faint sweetish odour. Both this and the following constitute a material proportion of the bog-earth in some parts of Hermite Island, and the present alone in the Falklands, sometimes covering the ground in broad hard green tufts. They are eminently southern plants, not being found to the northward of Fuegia.