Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/302

270 Var. P, macrostema, B. etP.; gracilis, foliis omnibus petiolatis, pctiolis gracibbus. F. macrostema, Ruiz et Pavon, Fl. Per. vol. iii. p. 88. t. 324. f. b. Hook, et Am. in Pot. Miscell. vol. iii. p. 308. DC. Prodr. vol. iii. p. 37. Lodd. Pot. Cab. 1. 1062. F. discolor, Lindl. Pot. Reg. t. 1805. Hook. Pot. Mag. t. 3498. F. gracilis, Lindl. Pot. Reg. t. 847 et, var. 0, 1052. PC. Prodr. vol. iii. p. 37. F. decussata, Graham in Edinb. Phil. Journ. vol. i. p. 401. Hook. Pot. Mag. t. 2507. non Ruiz et Pavon.

Hab. Fuegia and Soutb Cbib. Var. a, mountain woods in tbe Strait of Magalhaens j Commerson. Var. /3, Good Success Bay, Ranks and Solander ; Port Famine, Copt. King; Fuegia, C. Parwin, Esq.; Staten Island, Mr. Webster.

The commoner forms of Chilian Fuchsia are certainly referable to the F. macrostema of R. and P. (as suggested by Dr, Lindley under JP. discolor) ; it is the most abundant South American variety, growing from the latitude of Valparaiso to that of Fuegia, and is also now the general garden-plant in the neighbourhood of London. Of the original F. coccinea, Ait., ou the other hand, I have never seen wild specimens ; it is probably rare in its native country, and though introduced into England so long ago as 1788, by Capt. Firth, and universally cultivated for many succeeding years, it has quite given place to the more graceful and paler-flowered variety. The comparative length of the petioles appears to afford a very sufficient character of the two states ; they are short in the garden specimens of var. a, robusfior, and in Feuille's, Unger's, Lamarck's, and Curtis's plates of F. coccinea ; but longer and slender in all the native samples of var. /3, and in the published figures of F. macrostema.

While the climate of Fuegia bore the character of being among the most rigorous in the world, its vegetation was quoted as presenting a truly singular anomaly, because there, Fuchsias and the Veronica decussata, accompanying other half-hardy and greenhouse plants, flourish in the open air. Now, however, it is well understood that the climate is inclement and not rigorous ; and boisterous and cold summers not being necessarily the indices of proportionably severe winters, the fact is no longer doubted, or even wondered at. The difference between the climates of Great Britain and Fuegia is only an exaggeration of what exists between the east and west coasts of England and Scotland, or still more remarkably between Suffolk and Devonshire.

2. EPILOBIUM, L.

1. Epilobium tetragonum, Linn.; Sp. PL 494. Engl. Pot. t. 194S. Var. /3, Antarclicum ; caule ascendente basi ssepius procumbente ad angulos pubescente, foliis latioribus crassioribuscpie.

Hab. Tierra del Fucgo ; C. Parwin, Esq. Falkland Islands ; Mr. dartres, J. P. H. Var. /3, Port Famine ; Capt. King.

The species of Epilobium inhabiting the southern hemisphere are equally variable as those of the opposite one, appearing indeed quite inextricable. Some are undoubtedly allied to the plants of Europe, so that no description can be framed by which they may be recognized, whilst others differ in what are confessedly unimportant and fallacious characters.

What is here considered the E. tetragonum of Europe, has been the subject of repeated and most attentive examinations by Mr. Watson and myself, without enabbng us to detect any appreciable difference between it and the copious suites of European, Asiatic, and North American specimens, with which it was compared. Capt. King's plant, referred to a variety of it, is smaller and nearer E. alpinum of the northern regions, or E. confertifolium of Lord Auckland's group ; its stems are simple and prostrate below, the leaves oblong and obtuse. The stigmas of all the states are clavate and blunt.

After examining the species of Epilobium which inhabit the Cordillera between Chili and North America, I find, in all latitudes, states of one plant, which seems to prevail throughout the American continent from Canada to