Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/307

Falklands, etc.] obscure ciliatis, staminibus spicato-racemosis, antheris late oblongis. Dysemone lobata, Banks et Solander, MSS. in Mns. Banks cum icone.

Hab. Fuegia; Good Success Harbour, Banks and Solander; Hemiite Island, Cape Horn, J.B.H.

Caules sinrpliciusculi, elongati, 3-6 unc. longi, validi, crassitie pennae corvinse, glaberrfmi, subangulati, fibras phu'imas crassas valde elongatas ernittentes, versus apicem reliqiuis squamosis stipularum vetustarum obtecti. Petioli J- 1 unc. longi, pibs runs subscariosis tecti, basi in stipulam vaginantem dilatati. Lamina. - unc. lata, viridis, subtus pallicbor. Pedunculus exemplare niascido -i- unc. longus, racemum parvum staminum gerens. AntAera luteae.

My specimens were gathered upon the mountains near Cape Horn, in early spring, and are imperfect. I possess only a portion of a male spike of inflorescence, and borne upon a very stunted plant ; the bractese are probably caducous, they subtend the filaments and in 67. Magellanica may often be seen placed, one on either side of a contiguous pan of stamens ; properly speaking, they are segments of a rudimentary calyx.

1. METROSIDEBOS, Br.

1. stipularis, Hook, fil.; glaberrima, ramis ramulosis acute tetragonis Miosis, foliis parvis breviter petiolatis disticliis ellipticis ovatisve subacutis grosse pellucido-pmictatis nervis subparallelis basi glandulis inflatis quasi stipulatis, pedunculis folio brevioribus 1-3-floris, calyce 5-dentato glaberrimo dentibus erectis breviter ovatis obtusis, staminibus petalis ter longioribus, capsula obovato-turbinata coriacea 3-loculari, seminibus pluiimis linearibus testa reticulata. Myrtus stipularis, Hook, et Am. in Bot. Misc. vol. iii. p. 31 G. Eugenia leptospermoides, DC. Prodr. vol. iii. p. 26G ?

Hab. Chonos Archipelago ; C. Darwin, Esq.

Rami graciles, cortice cinereo tecti. Folia unc. longa, flavo-virescentia, subtus pallidiora. Pedmicnli longit. fold. Capsul&aelig; suberect&aelig;, &frac14; unc. long&aelig;, obscure pentagon&aelig;, extus infra lobos calycis poris 5 irregulariter rumpentes. Semina parva, linearia, fugacia.

This plant is the only recorded American species, not only of Metrosideros, but of the whole group or tribe of Myrtacea, to which that genus belongs, and which is chiefly confined to Australia, where the Lepfosperma form a conspicuous feature, in the vegetation; they are also numerous in New Zealand, and are found in the Indian Islands, eastward of the Malay peninsula. The group, in question, contains upwards of 450 species, almost exclusively limited to an area bounded by the equator on the north, New Zealand on the east, Tasmania on the south, and Sumatra on the west ; to these points they, as it were, radiate from the principal parallel of New Holland, which Mr. Brown considers to contain their maximum. Prom Australia the tribe seems to extend eastward rather than westward, more species inhabiting New Zealand, small though that country, comparatively speaking, is, than the East Indian Islands. They occur, though very sparingly, throughout the distant Isles of the Pacific Ocean, as far east as Pitcairn's Island. The tribe has a few solitary species in very remote countries ; and these I would term outlying species, for they are so typical of an Australian flora as to appear foreigners among the vegetation of other countries. Such are Backia frutescens of China, Metrosideros angustifolia of the Cape of Good Hope, and the Metrosideros stipidaris of Chili. Each of these is the lone representative of a group, which, as it were, holds a more distinguished place amongst its fellow plants in another part of the world, and to the eye of the botanist is a stranger and wanderer in the land it inhabits. Other natural orders, characteristic of Australia, afford parallel cases to this, viz. Epacridea, Goodeniacea and Stylidea.

It is chiefly in the extreme south and upon the west coast of America that the representatives of Australian