Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/342

306 (lat. 37°); also found on the Andes by Dr. Gillies, in lat. 33°, and on the mountains of Quito in Colombia, under the equator, by Professor Jameson, whose specimens appear to differ in no respect from those gathered in Fuegia.

The whole plant is generally perfectly glabrous, though not unfrequently a slight pubescence is observable on the scales of the involucre in individuals collected in the Falklands and Fuegia. The A. Gilliesii is certainly not distinct from this ; both have the flowers of the ray disposed in several series ; but otherwise, and especially in habit, they agree better with Aster than with the following genus.

3. ERIGERON, L.

1. Erigeron alpbms, L. Sp. PL E. Bot. t. 464. E. pauciflorus, Banks et Sol. MSS. inMus. Banks, cum icone.

Var. 0. unijlorus, Ed. Cat. Brit. Fl. p. 193. E. unifiorus, L. ; Hook, et Am. in Com]). Bot. 3Iag. vol. ii. p. 50.

Var. y, myosotifolius ; foliis caulinis sessilibus linearibus subobtusis appresse cano-pubescentibus, floribus solitariis v. ad apicem caulis aggregatis.

Hab. Strait of Magalhaens ; Port Gregory, Capt. King and C. Barwin, Esq.; Cape Negro, C. Barwin, Esq.; Port Famine, Capt. King; Good Success Bay, Banks and Solander. Yar. /3, Cape Negro and Elizabeth Island, C. Barwin, Esq. Var. y, Port Famine, Capt. King.

I quite believe the E. alpinus and var. uniform of Fuegia to be identical with the so-named species of Em-ope and North America, but whether they may not be in both countries varieties of another plant, is more than doubtful. Thus, in North America the E. alpinus passes at once and unequivocally into a species called E.glabratus, winch is of a totally different habit and appearance, and unites the alpine plant with others of the United States. So, in Europe, E. alpinus of the Altai mountains becomes E. elongatus, in which the pappus is about one half longer than the acbeenium, and that again E. glabratus, whose pappus is twice as long as the achsenium. Again, I have seen specimens of this species from the Sierra Nevada of Spain, alt. 8,000 feet, which are the common form of E. alpinus, and a variety gathered at 1,000 feet of lower elevation, apparently the same as E. acris ; both are named E. alpinus by M. Boissier, a most accurate and learned European botanist. The individuals of this genus are apparently in the same predicament as those of Epilobium, a form from one country often constituting the link that unites two allied ones of a remote region, insomuch that it is impossible to study the species properly without an examination of individuals from all parts of the globe. The rapidity with which an Erigeron may be dispersed and the consequent facility the genus affords for presenting varieties, are evidenced by the spread of E. Canadensis, L., throughout the warm countries of the old world, since the discovery of the new; it is a plant which, requiring much summer heat, does not enter into the Antarctic regions, though abundant in Canada.

The variety y is possibly a distinct species, but my specimens are very imperfect, and the E. alpinus itself is so variable in all the parts of the world it inhabits that tins may be a state of it. Capt. King has what I consider an intermediate variety from Cape Fan-weather, on the coast of Patagonia, which in hairiness and foliage resembles E. alpinus, but the capitula are, as in var. myosotifolius, aggregated at the apex of the stem.

2. Erigeron Sulivani, Hook. fil. j totus pilis appressis subliirsutus, caule brevissimo depresso bi-tricipiti folioso, foliis substellatim patentibus elliptico-ovatis subacutis integerrimis in petiolum attenuatis, scapo erecto monocephalo foliis linearibus bracteolato, capitulo majusculo depresso, involucri squamis anguste linearibus hispido-lanatis. Hieracium? incertum, B'Urrille in Mem. Soc. Linn. Paris, vol. iv. p. 608. Gaud, in Freyc. Toy. Bot. p. 134.

Hab. Falkland Islands, on moist cliffs near the sea ; B' Urville, Capt. Sulivan, J. B. H.