III. THE BOTANY OF GOUGH ISLAND. 1 



By R. N. RUDMOSE BROWN, D.Sc. ; C. H. WRIGHT, A.L.S., Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Kew ; and 0. V. DARBISHIRE, B.A., Ph.D., University of Bristol. 



(With Four Plates.) 



GOUGH ISLAND, or Diego Alvarez, which lies in the mid-South Atlantic (lat. 40 20' S., 

 long. 9 56' 30" W.), may be regarded as the most outlying island of the Tristan da 

 Cunha group. It lies S.E. by S. about 220 miles from Nightingale Island, the nearest 

 adjacent island of the group. 



It is a small island some seven or eight miles in a northerly and southerly direction, 

 and three or four miles east and west. It rises to a heieht of about 4000 feet. 



O 



The island has never been permanently inhabited, though the islanders of Tristan 

 da Cunha appear occasionally to have visited it according to Mr Moseley. 2 



From August 1888 to January 1889 a party of twelve men belonging to a New 

 London sealing schooner lived there. One of these men (George Comer), who appears 

 to have had some knowledge of science, besides bringing home some bird skins and 

 eggs, kept a diary in which are a few notes relating to plants. Comer 3 says "there 

 are two kinds of trees, though while one is plentiful, the other is quite scarce. The 

 grass and brakes grow very rank." " Wood is plentiful. The trees are stunted, but 

 quite thick in some places on the island." "The trees retain their leaves the year 

 round." " The thick bushes extend to an elevation of about 2000 feet." The tree 

 referred to is no doubt Phylica nitida, while possibly the other " tree " is the tree-fern 

 Lomaria Boryana. Comer also states that he found some potatoes growing wild 

 " where there used to be a camp of sealers eighteen years ago." Near the landing-place, 

 on what is apparently the only piece of level ground near sea-level, ruins of one or two 

 huts are to be seen. These, I afterwards found at Cape Town, had been inhabited in 

 the year 1892 by a party of sealers from South Africa who had spent thirteen mouths 

 on the island. The sealing had proved a comparative failure, and the men had not 

 returned. South Sea whalers have occasionally touched here and even brought back 

 collections of birds and rocks, but no plants seem to have been gathered. These 

 whalers, chiefly American, are no doubt responsible for several introduced plants on 



1 Reprinted with corrections and additions from Journ. Linn. Hoc. Lund., Hot., xxxvii., 1905, pp. 238-250 

 and pp. 263-267. 



2 H. N. Moseley, Journ. Linn. ,SW. Land., But., xiv., 1872, p. 384. 



3 G. E. Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad., ix., 1895, part ii. p. 132. 



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