EEPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ISLANDS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 149 



The genus Accena is diffused all round the south temperate zone, and extends north- 

 ward through the Andes to Mexico and Southern California : it is also represented in 

 the Sandwich Islands. The species are most numerous in^ the extreme south of America ; 

 and one of these, Accena ovalifolia, Ruiz and Pav., is very closely allied to the present. 



UMBELLIFER^l. 

 Hydrocotyle capitata, Thouars. 



Hydrocotyle capitata, Thouars, Esquisse Fl. Trist., p. 43, t. 12; Carmich. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., 

 xii. p. 506. 



Tristan da Cunha. Thouars; Carmichael; MacGillivray and Milne; 3Ios< , l< i >/. 

 Inaccessible Island. Moseley. 



Endemic in the group, and a very distinct species when normally developed, as in 

 Carmichael's specimens, and Moseley 's from Inaccessible Island, the larger leaves being from 

 two to two and a half inches across ; but the starved specimens collected by Milne and 

 MacGillivray have leaves not more than a third of an inch across, and the plant resembles 

 the New Zealand Hydrocotyle moschata in appearance. The leaves of Moseley's Tristan da 

 Cunha plant are intermediate in size, the largest being about three quarters of an inch in 

 their greatest diameter. In Carmichael's time, Hydrocotyle capitata was very common in 

 the lower part of the main island. Both he and Mr Moseley have placed on record that 

 the plant possesses the uncommon smell and taste of the carrot in a high degree. It is 

 noteworthy that the greatest concentration of species of the widely spread genus Hydro- 

 cotyle is in the southern hemisphere, there being no fewer than twenty-six in Australia. 



Apium australe, Thouars. 



Allium australe, Thouars, Esquisse Fl. Trist., p. 43; Carmich. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., xii. p. 506 ; 

 Benth., Fl. Austr., iii. p. 372 ; Hook, f., Handb. FL N. Zeal., p. 90. 



Tristan da Cunha. Thouars; Carmichael; MacGillivray and Milne; Moseley. 

 Inaccessible Island. Moseley. 



This plant is found all round the southern temperate zone, including many of the 

 remote islets, and South Africa, and it varies very much in size, in the cutting of the 

 leaves, and even in the size and consistence of the fruit. It is very closely allied to the 

 northern celery {Apium graveolens), with which it was united in the Flora Antarctica, 

 ii. p. 287, but afterwards separated by the author of the work cited in his Handbook of 

 the Flora of New Zealand, and by Mr Bentham in the Flora Australiensis. This will 

 explain the adoption of the name Apium graveolens for the Tristan da Cunha plant by 

 Mr Moseley (Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond., xiv. p. 379), who had only the Flora Antarctica 

 before him when writing the sketch of the vegetation of the islands. 



