Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/95

Campbell's Islands.] dorso convexa; dum solitaria latiora, intus carinata. Testa utrinque in alam producta; membrana exterior laxa, membranacea, atro-fusca; interna crustacea, aterrima, nitida, sub lente impresso-punctata. Albumen carnosum, pallide viride. Embryo axilis, filiformis, teres, paulo arcuatus, carnosus, viridis, albumine parum brevior; extremitate radiculari incrassata, obtusa:&mdash;Monstra, racemis bifidis, seu scapis divisis, dicephalis, non raro occurrunt.

I am unable to refer this to any described genus of Asphodele&aelig;, and have adopted the name in allusion to the magnificent racemes of golden-yellow flowers which it bears. It will rank near Anthericum, L., from which it differs in having only one or at most two ovules and in the erect style. It is also very nearly allied to Bulbinella, Kunth (En. Plant, vol. iv. p. 569), especially in general appearance; but in that genus the perianth is persistent, a character probably of more importance than the number of ovules or bearded filaments, which have hitherto been considered sufficient to distinguish genera too nearly allied in other respects.

Perhaps no group of islands on the surface of the globe, of the same limited extent and so perfectly isolated, can boast of three such beautiful plants, peculiar to their flora, as the Pleurophyllum speciosum (Plate XXII. &amp; XXIII.), Celmisia vernicosa (Plate XXVI. &amp; XXVII.), and the subject of the foregoing description. The last, from its greater abundance and conspicuous colour, is certainly the most striking of the three, not only giving a feature to the landscape wherever it grows, but in Campbell's Island covering the swampy sides of the hills in such profusion as to be distinctly visible at the distance of a full mile from shore. The specific name I have given in compliment to Sir James Ross, who, during our two days' stay in this island, brought to me, amongst many other new plants, one most luxuriant specimen of this, having three crowns of leaves from one root and no less than seven racemes of flowers, some of which were bifid; it was between three and four feet high; I much regretted the impossibility of preserving it whole, and the necessity there was of cutting it up into many fragments. The difficulty of preserving specimens at all, in latitudes so constantly wet and stormy, is very great; especially on board ship, where, from the vicissitudes of the climate, they can rarely be exposed to the air on deck: the operation is rendered doubly tedious, when, as in the islands under consideration, the vegetation is of a very succulent and coriaceous consistence. Most of my specimens required to be changed daily, and the papers to be dried over a long smoke funnel which traversed Captain Ross's cabin, the limited accommodation of our ships affording no other place available for this purpose. But for this privilege, constantly allowed me during the voyage, and which to any one less devoted than that officer to the objects of the expedition must have proved an insupportable annoyance, my collections would have been small indeed. The present plant was collected on the 15th of December 1840, but not fully dried when we had reached the 78th degree of latitude in February 1841.

It is very natural that the great size and luxuriance of this and several other plants of the high southern latitudes should excite surprise. Arguing from those countries in the northern hemisphere which are upon the limits of terrestrial vegetation and which have a similarly rigorous climate, the vegetation of the former might be expected to consist of small and densely tufted plants. This is however not the case, and I have endeavoured to account for the apparent anomaly from the fact that the higher southern regions enjoy a singularly equable, though to the human constitution always inclement climate. It is further to be remarked, that the Flora, even under these circumstances of a peculiar luxuriance in individuals, is composed of very few species; and again, that in the South, hardly any state of vegetation is met with between that of considerable abundance and almost complete sterility, and on ascending the mountains few or no new forms occur: the great mass of the alpine plants (even on the limits of perpetual snow) being those which inhabit the open lands at the level of the ocean. The botany of the densely wooded regions of the southern islands of the New Zealand group and of Fuegia is much more meagre, not only than that of similarly clothed regions in Europe, but of islands many degrees nearer the