Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/278

246 A very small and distinct species, most nearly allied to that mentioned in the first part of the volume, and of which I have, since the publication of the portion alluded to, seen perfect specimens collected by M. Le Guillon, one of the officers of Admiral D'Urville's Expedition. It appears to me that these, with the B. Arcturi, Hook. (Ic. Plant, t. 56) are three single-flowered representative species belonging to the extreme southern portions of New Zealand, Australia and America.

VIII. CARYOPHYLLE^, Juss.

1. LYCHNIS, DC.

1. Lychnis Magellanica, Lam. ; pubescenti-tomentosa, caule stricto erecto plerumcpvie unifloro, foliis liiiearibus gramineis glabriusculis, flore erecto, calyce late ovoideo segmentis oblongis apicibus rotundatis membranaeeis, petalis angustis calyce lougioribus. L. Magellanica, Lam. Diet. vol. iii. p. 641. DC. Proclr. vol. i. p. 386.

Hab. Strait of Magalliaens ; Commerson. Port Larnine; Capt. King. Cape Negro; C. Darwin, Esq.

Caules basi ramosi, ca?spitosi, e radice fusiformi elongata orti. Folia radicalia 1-I-j- unc. longa, conferta, basi ciliata, vaginantia, supenie glaberrima, gradatim acuminata, coriacea, marginibus tenuiter cartilagineis integerrimis; caulina breviora, pube albida tomentosa. Rami florentes v. scapi plerumque uniflori, 6 unc. ad pedalem, graciles, teretes, 3-5 nodosi, molliter pubescentes. Flos magnus, erectus v. paulo inchnatus. Calyx i unc. longns, ± latus, suburceolatus, pubescens, membranaceus, 10-nervosus, nervis viridibus; dentibus 5, majusculis, oblougis, ad apicem rotundatis. Petala calyce sub i longiora, ungue lineari, fauce squama lata sublacera erecta instructa, lamina fere ad basin partita ; laciuiis divaricatis, late linearibus, retusis, basi extus dente majuscido auctis. Germen oblongiun, anthophoro ineonspicuo insidens ; stigmatibus 5. Capsula exserta, unilocularis, ad apicem 5-valvis. Seminal

The resemblance of this to the variable L. apetala, of Arctic Europe, Asia and America, is so very strong, that I hardly feel justified in retaining it as a distinct species. The only differential character of importance that I can point out, is the form of the petals, the lamina of which is here divided to the base into two linear segments. There may be peculiarities also in the seeds, of which I am ignorant, for Ledebour (Flora Rossica, vol. i. p. 326) attaches great importance to these organs, as distinctive of all the varieties of L. apetala. The present species has been brought by Dr. Gillies from the Andes of Chili, his specimens belong to a broad-leaved variety. All the species most closely allied to the present are natives of very cold regions, or of great elevations in warmer climates. In Europe and North Asia the L. apetala never, at the level of the sea, inhabits a lower latitude than the Arctic circle, approaching the Pole itself in Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen. In North America it abounds likewise chiefly to the north of the polar circle, forming part of the scanty Flora of Melville Island ; at a great elevation on the Rocky Mountains it occurs as low as 52° N. latitude. It is not a native of the Alps, nor there replaced by any other species, the lands bordering the Icy sea being its only European habitat. In Asia, as in North America, it descends to latitude 50° on the Altai range, and the Himalayan produces several representative species. The re-appearance of a plant, so truly arctic, on the highest mountains of Chdi, and again at the Strait of Magalhaens, if the present be the same, is a very curious fact, to be classed with those alluded to under the Draba incana, rid. p. 233.

On the Andes of Colombia the species is replaced by an allied but very distinct one, L. thysanodes.