REPORT OX THE BOTANY OF JUAN FERNANDEZ AND MASAFUERA. 3 



so that it rendered the walk rather fatiguing, and we were glad to sit down under a large quince-trei 



on a carpet of balm bordered with roses, now neglected, and rest, and feast our eyes with the lovely- 

 view before us. Lord Anson has not exaggerated the beauty of the place, or the delights of the 

 climate. We were rather early for its fruits ; but even at this time we have gathered delicious figs, 

 and cherries, and pears, that a i'vw more days' sun would have perfected." 



Mr David Douglas, whose numerous discoveries in Western North America are known 

 to botanists and horticulturists alike, and who met with an untimely and horrible death 1 in 

 the Sandwich Islands some ten years later, landed on Juan Fernandez on his first outward 

 voyage in 1824. He was accompanied by Dr Scolder, 2 who was more specially devoted to 

 zoological pursuits, though he made a small collection of dried plants. Their stay was 

 very short, but Douglas 3 estimated that he collected seventy "distinct and highly interesting 

 plants." Like Mrs Graham, he observed the colonised fruit trees, and he also mentions the 

 Chilian strawberry, which was, and is still, very abundant ; but his brief account of the 

 vegetation contains nothing of special interest. 4 Many of his plants, as well as BerteroV, 

 were described and published by the late Sir William Jackson Hooker and Dr G. A. 

 Walker Arnott. 6 



The next in order is Bertero, who almost exhausted the botany of the island, and who, 

 although he did not live to publish his plants, thoroughly studied and carefully labelled 

 them — not one set alone but several, so that there is little difficulty in identifying them 

 from the descriptions where the notes on Bertero's labels have been added. Dr Charles 

 Joseph Bertero was born at Turin, and was a member of the Academy of that town. In 

 1827 be left Europe intent upon the botanical exploration of Chili, towards which little 

 had previously been done; and by the end of 1829 he had collected a herbarium of 

 some 15,000 well preserved specimens. As the country was then being desolated by a 

 civil war, he determined to leave the mainland and botanise Juan Fernandez and some 

 other islands of the Pacific. He successfully accomplished that portion of his task relating 

 to Juan Fernandez, where he collected about 2000 specimens, comprising, inclusive of 

 cellular cryptogams, 300 species. This was done during the first half of the year 1830, 

 and on his return to Valparaiso the plants were soon despatched to Europe, one set to Sir 

 William Hooker, one to Mr Delessert, one to Turin, and others to various botanical establish- 

 ments. Where the first or most complete set is we do not know, but the one acquired by 

 Sir William Hooker, now in the general Herbarium at Kew, is nearly if not quite complete, 



1 He was found in a pit made to entrap cattle, gored to death by a bullock. 



2 Afterwards Lecturer on Natural History, and Keeper of the Royal Lublin Society's -Museum. 



3 Hooker's Companion to the Botanical Magazine, ii. p. 86. 



4 Hooker's Companion to the Botanical Magazine, ii. pp. 84-86. 



5 Contributions towards a Flora of South America and the Islands of the Pacific: Hooker's Boti 

 Miscellany, hi. 1833, pp. 129-211, 302-367; Hooker's Journal of Botany, i. 1834, pp. 276-296, iii. pp. 19-47, 

 310-348 ; Hooker's Companion to the Botanical Magazine, i. 1835, pp. 29-38, 102-111, 23 1-.' 1 1, ii. pp. 41-52, 

 250-254. 



Lasegue, Musc'e B>tanique, p. 260. 



