Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/365

Falklands, etc.]

1. MYOSOTIS, L.

1. albifiora, Banks et Sol. MSS.; caulibus e rhizomate valido plurimis prostratis gracilibus foliisque parce appresse pilosis, foliis radicalibus spathulatis petiolatis caulinis obovato-oblongis, floribus paucis axillaribus breviter pedicellatis calycibusque campanulatis appresse pilosis, coroll&aelig; tubo calycem superante limbi lobis late oblongis brevinsculis. M. albiflora, ''Banks et Sol. MSS. in Bill. Banks, cum icone.''

Fuegia, Good Success Bay, Banks and Solander. South part of Tierra del Fuego, C. Darwin, Esq.

Rhizoma crassum, unc. longum, fibras plurimas atras emittens, apiceque caules 5-8 gerens. Caules 2-unciales, prostrati, apice ascendentes, parce foliosi. Folia -&frac12;-uncialia, 3-4 lin. lata, apice obtusa, utrinque sed super pr&aelig;cipue pilis albidis appressis sparsa. Flores axillares, non racemosi, inconspicui, pedicellati; pedicello calyce &aelig;quilongo, sub &frac14; lin. longo. Calyx 5-fidus, baciniis ovato-lanceolatis, acutis, coroll&aelig; tubo &frac12; brevioribus. Coroll&aelig; tubus teres, fauce glandulis fornicatis superne medio emarginatis fere clausa. Stamina inclusa. Stylus stigmate clavato terrainatus.

In size and habit this little species closely resembles the M. Antarctica (Part 1. p. 57. t. 38), but it is a much slenderer, less rigid, and comparatively glabrous plant, with larger, though still very inconspicuous, and white flowers. It evidently belongs, by its prostrate stems and axillary flowers, to the New Zealand group of the genus, which, under the species alluded to, I have noticed as very different from that including the majority of the genus.

1. SOLANUM, L.

1. tuberosum, Linn. ''Sp. Pl.'' 282. Dunal, Monogr. p. 135.

Chonos Archipelago, C. Darwin, Esq.

The true Potato plant reaches the boundary to which the Antarctic Flora of South America is confined, and is described as particularly abundant in the localities whence Mr. Darwin's specimens were brought. The nature of the present work forbids my dwelling on some of the peculiarities which mark the history and habitat of this plant; and I leave the subject with the less reluctance, because Mr. Darwin's own history of its discovery in an indisputably native state is already published in one of the most interesting 'Journals of a Naturalist' that has ever been written. The following remarks apply wholly to the botanical affinities of the individual species now universally cultivated in all temperate civilized countries.

There are in South America several Solana, so closely allied to the true Potato, that it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish them specifically. Though differing materially in the shape of their calycine lobes, they display such variation in these organs, that no specific value can be attached to them alone. The fruit may afford better characters, but that of many is at present unknown. The following is an enumeration of those South American Solana, allied to, or varieties of, the true S. tuberosum, which exist in the Hookerian Herbarium. I shall commence with the specimens most similar to the common cultivated form.

S. tuberosum, L.

Var. 1, vulgare, planta pubescens, caule robusto, foliis amplis, calycis majusculi lobis e basi late ovata in acumen subelongatum productis.