Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/273

Falklands, etc.] even if it would survive the decapitation. Growing spontaneously and in so great abundance where it does, it is likely to prove, for ages to come, an inestimable blessing to ships touching at this far-distant Isle; whilst its luxuriance amidst surrounding desolation, its singular form and appearance, striking even the casual observer, and the feelings of loneliness and utter isolation from the rest of the world, that must more or less oppress every voyager at first landing on its dreary and inhospitable locality, are circumstances likely to render the Kerguelen's Land cabbage, cabbage though it be, a cherished object in the recollection of the mariner : one never to be effaced by the brighter or luscious products of a tropical vegetation.

Plate XC. — XCI. Fig. 1, — a young seed-vessel; fig. 2, a side view of a mature silicula ; Jig. 3, front view of the same ; Jig. 4, the same with the valves removed, shewing the seeds ; fig. 5, a seed removed ; fig. 6, the same cut open vertically ; fig. 7, embryo, removed from the seed : — all magnified.

5. THLASPI, Bill.

1. Thlaspi Magellanicum, Pers. Ench. vol. ii. p. 189. Poir. Diet. vol. vii. p. 541. DC. Sgst. Teg. vol. ii. p. 381. Prodr. vol. i. p. 176.

Hab. Straits of Magalhaens, in dry and open places ; "Baie Duclos" and "Baie Boucaut" ; Commerson.

As far as I am aware, this exists in the Paris Museum only ; from whence De Candolle drew up his description, according to which, it is sufficiently distinct from the only other South American species, T. Andicola, Hook, et Am., a native of the Andes of Chili. 6. SENTEBIERA, Poir.

1. Sexebiera australis Hook. fil. j annua? parce patentim pilosa, caulibus diffusis ascendentibus ramosis, foliis subbipinnatifidis lobis incisis, siliculis longius pedicellatis majoribus didymis leviter reticulatis.

Hab. Clionos Archipelago ; C. Darwin, Esq.

Omnia 8. pinnatifida, sed racemis pedicellisque longioribus, siliculis dnplo majoribus leviterque reticulatis.

I have examined specimens of S.piiuiatifida, from various parts both of North and South America, where it grows from Buenos Ayres in lat. 35° south, to Carolina in lat. 35° north ; and others from the old world, from the Cape of Good Hope in the same southern latitude, as far north as Gotldand in Sweden, (lat. 58° .N). Prom whatever locality I have received it, and however much the leaves may vary, the size of the siliculaB and their form and reticula- tion are constant, through twenty specimens gathered in as many different parts of Europe, Africa, and America; they do not approach the size of S. australis, though, except in size and the less reticulated surface of the pods of Chilian species, I can detect no difference of any importance.

The existence of another species so nearly allied to S. pinnatifida, from the Chonos Archipelago, where we cannot suppose it to have been introduced, is an argument in favour of M. De Candolle's conjecture, that S. pinnatifida, though now abundantly diffused throughout the warm and cultivated parts of Europe, Africa, and both Americas, is probably a native of the new world alone. It is impossible to say how far the S.piiuiatifida may be naturalized, even in the new world ; it seems remarkably plentiful at Buenos Ayres and along that coast to South Brazil and Rio; but I am not aware of its having been found on the western side of America, except at Valparaiso, and near Quito, whence Humboldt and Bonpland's specimens are described by M. Kunth as S. pectinate.

On the East of North America, according to Torrey and Gray, S. australis inhabits only the Southern United States, growing in fields and along the banks of rivers. M'Fadyen mentions it in his Flora of Jamaica, as an abundant native of that Island, in common with many other cruciferous plants, whose recent introduction is far less equivocal.

The parts of the old world inhabited by the S. pinnatifida, are strictly the Eastern, as is to be expected in an