62 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGES. 



Total, 115 species belonging to eighty-four genera, fifty-six of which are represented 

 in New Zealand. Here, as in the islands contiguous to New Zealand, there is no endemic 

 genus ; but the endemic species number twenty-six, or 22 - 6 per cent, of the whole. 

 Leguminosae are wholly wanting, as tbey are, we believe, in Fuegia. A very few have 

 been collected at Port Famine, Port Gregory on the opposite side of Magellan Strait, 

 and one in Elizabeth Island in the Strait. We have already alluded to the absence or 

 great rarity of Leguminosae in insular floras where there is no littoral element, but the 

 flora of the colder southern regions generally is exceptionally poor in this order. In the 

 Arctic regions there are at least thirty-four species, belonging to twelve genera. 



In Sir James Eoss's Narrative of his Antarctic Voyage (ii. p. 293) are the following 

 remarks by Sir J. D. Hooker on the vegetation of the extreme south of America : "As 

 Hermite Island is situated close to Cape Horn (56° S. lat.), a list of the indigenous plants 

 is given. Only four species of flowering plants reach the top of Mount Kater, a peak of 

 greenstone 1700 feet above the sea, and the culminant point of the island. They are : 

 Azorella selago, Abrotanella emarginata, Pernettya pumila, and Empetrum rubrum. The 

 following species reach an elevation of 1500 feet on the same or neighbouring peaks : Viola 

 tridentata, Saxifraga bicuspidata, Escallonia serrata, Azorella lycopodioides, Ourisia 

 breviflora, Drapetes muscosa, Fagus antarctica (only three inches long), Luzula sp., Triodia 

 antarctica, Aira pctrrula, and Festuca erecta." In the place cited are particulars of the 

 flora of the lower part of the island, where vegetation is relatively varied and luxuriant. 

 Extensive forests of beech (Fagus fosteri and Fagus antarctica) exist, intermingled with 

 Drimys ivinteri, and a sparse undergrowth of Berberis ilicifolia, Veronica elliptica, &c. 

 Among the genera of herbaceous plants represented are : Caliha, Astelia, Forstera, 

 Donatia, Pinguecula, Primula, Senecio, Carex, and Juncus. 



THE FLORA OF MACQUARIE ISLAND. 



No endemic flowering plant or fern has been collected in Macquarie Island. Neverthe- 

 less the flora clearly belongs to the same category as the Crozets, Kerguelen, Auckland, &c, 

 between which, as we believe, there was formerly a closer land connection. Great interest 

 attaches to the botany of this island, on account of its being the most southerly land 

 known to support phanerogamic vegetation at the present time, if we except the Archi- 

 pelago at the southern extremity of America and the South Shetlands, in about 62° S. lat., 

 where one flowering plant, Aira antarctica, was collected by Dr Eights, and is preserved in 

 the Kew Herbarium. At Cockburn Island, in 64°, Sir J. D. Hooker found only cellular 

 cryptogams. 1 



South Georgia, which lies in about the same latitude as Macquarie, but nearly on the 



1 See Sir James Boss's Voyage in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, ii. p. 335. 



