Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/565

Falklands, etc.] regions of Southern Europe ascending to the summit of the Pyrenees, and to the level of perpetual snow on the Alps. Again, in the Arctic zone it is found carpeting the otherwise naked steppes of Asia and the barren lands of America, thence reaching the ultima thide of vegetable life in Melville Island and Ross Islet. To the south of its principal parallel it inhabits the Canary Islands, and a variety is seen on the Andes of Mexico and Colombia. Still further south it is replaced in all longitudes by the following species, being itself unknown in the Southern Hemisphere except at Cape Horn and Kerguelen's Land, where it re-appears in abundance. To reconcile this singular fact with the views of those who suppose it to have migrated into Kerguelen's Land, it is almost necessary to consider the S. ramulosum, which inhabits Lord Auckland's group, Campbell's Island, Tasmania, and the northern parts of Fuegia, as a southern variety of S. corallinum, which has, in Kerguelen's Land and Cape Horn, reverted to the northern form.

2. Stereocaulon ramulosum, Ach. Fl. Antarct. Pt. 1. p. 195. t. lxxx. f. 1.

Hab. Strait of Magalhaens, Capt. King. Chonos Archipelago, C. Darwin, Esq.

This widely distributed species replaces in the Southern Hemisphere, to a considerable degree, the S.paschale and coral! iiium of the Northern, but not fully ; for it only enters what we have elsewhere denned to be the Antarctic zone of vegetation, not reaching the Falkland Islands, the southern parts of the Fuegian Islands or Kerguelen's Land. In the Old World it first appears in Bourbon, thence ranging from the Philippines, through Java, Australia, the South Sea Islands, Tasmania and New Zealand, to Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island, abounding iu rocky and damp places, also on the trunks of large trees. In the New World it commences in the West Indian Islands, whence Swartz originally procured it, and ruus through every parallel of latitude to the Strait of Magalhaens.

As a species S. ramulosum appears, at first sight, abundantly distinct from 8. corallinum, nor does it display a tendency to assume any northern form of the genus in the Strait of Magalhaens. In Tasmania, again, where it ascends the mountains and becomes dwarfish, its lateral ramuli are still slender and fibrous, typical of the species. On the other hand, some of the tropical specimens, especially those from the Equatorial Andes (where both species occur), appear intermediate between S. ramulosum and corallinum ; insomuch that it becomes a matter of opinion alone, whether the S. ramulosum- should be considered a southern state of S. corallinum, owing its greater development to the more uniform temperature and humidity of the localities it affects in the Southern Hemisphere ; or whether these are two species, one originating in the Southern Hemisphere, and one in the Northern, meeting under the Line, and there varying into the similitude of one another.

3. Stereocaulon alpinum, Fries ; Lich. Eurqp. p. 204.

Hab. Herniite Island, Cape Horn; on the summits of the lulls.

A native of all the European Alps, also of the Andes of Pern.

4. Stereocaulon denudation, Sornm. ; Lapp. p. 126. Fries, Lich. Eurqp. p. 204. Moug.etNestl. n.466.

Hab. Hermite Island, Cape Horn; on rocks near the sea.

Also an inhabitant of the Alps of Europe and the Mexican Andes.

We are indebted to the Rev. Churchill Babington for the identification of the species of this difficult genus. 9. SPH^EOPHOEON, Ach.

1. Sph^erophoron coralloides, Ach.; Lich. Univ. p. 585. Engl. Bot. 1. 115. Moug. et Nestl. n. 262.

Hab. Strait of Magalhaens, throughout Fuegia and the Falkland Islands ; on the ground and on trunks of trees, most abundant, ascending to the tops of the mountains.