Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/80

58 and has been described and figured (in Mus. Banks) as M. riglda, Banks and Sol. MSS. Forster accurately describes the flowers of his plant as solitary, most of them being truly so; but, from its being similar in all other respects to a plant brought home from New Zealand by Admiral D'Urville, except in the latter having the flowers in a raceme, M. Richard altered (in his Flora Nov&aelig; Zelandi&aelig;, p. 198) the character of Forster. His species is probably the M. rigida, Banks and Solander, or another nearly allied plant which we possess from New Zealand.

The M. antarctica is certainly an extreme instance of any of the species having a leafy inflorescence; although the genus is generally described as having "racemus ebracteatus," there are some European and even British species, which, in having the lower flowers solitary in the axils of the uppermost leaves removed from the base of the raceme, show an evident analogy to the southern ones.

Several of the species of the northern hemisphere, though nearly identical with others of the southern, are not known to grow within 80 or 90 degrees of latitude of one another. This is the case both in the eastern and western hemispheres. A very few are inhabitants of the elevated and cold regions of the tropics, under the equator, where they attain, on the Andes of South America, an altitude of 12,000 feet. In the old world the present species represents the southern limit of the genus; especially as, from the elevation it attains in Campbell's Island, it may be supposed capable of existing at the level of the sea in a much higher southern latitude.

Plate XXXVIII. Fig. 1, flower; fig. 2, corolla laid open; fig. 3, ovaria; fig. 4, stamen; fig. 5, calyx with ripe fruit; fig. 6, back, and fig. 7, front view of an ach&aelig;nium; fig. 8, transverse section of an ach&aelig;nium; fig. 9, embryo removed:&mdash;all magnified.

1. elliptica, Forst.; fruticosa v. arbuscula, ramulis obscure bifariam albo-puberulis, foliis decussatis horizontaliter patentibus ellipticis oblongis oblongo-lanceolatis v. obovato-oblongis acutis v. mucronatis rarius obtusis coriaceis glabris aveniis marginibus interdum ciliatis costa subtus prominula ultra apicem producta junioribus remote crenato-serratis, racemis axillaribus brevibus rarius corymboso-ramosis pauci–(4–10)–floris, calycis laciniis ovatis acutis v. acuminatis tubo coroll&aelig; paulo brevioribus, corolla majuscula alba v. carnea, capsulis late ovatis.&mdash;Forst. Prodr. n. 10. et in ''A. Richard, Flor. Nov. Zel''. p. 189. ''A. Cunn. Prodr. in Ann. Nat. Hist''. vol. i. p. 458. V. decussata, ''Ait. Hort. Kew''. vol. i. p. 31. ''Sims, Bot. Mag''. t. 242, et auctorum. V. decussata, &beta;, Banks and Sol. MSS.

. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; margins of woods near the sea, abundant.

This is a very well-known plant in our gardens, introduced from the Falkland Islands, and is one of the most antarctic trees, both in this longitude and in that of extreme Southern America, there reaching the 57th parallel of latitude. It was first collected in New Zealand by Forster, its original discoverer, in Dusky Bay, where it has since been found by Anderson and Menzies. I believe it however to have been noticed before as a native of the Straits of Magalhaens, by the older navigators.

In combining the V. decussata Ait. with V. elliptica, I have followed the unpublished opinion of Dr. Solander. In the British Museum there are drawings of the latter plant by Forster, New Zealand specimens collected probably by that author, and notes by Dr. Solander. The specimens alluded to are in fruit only, and agree in the foliage with the figures, which represent it in its flowering state. Dr. Forster's own handwriting