4 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



judging from what has been published by Continental botanists. He also wrote 1 a sketch 

 of the flora, the substance of which is reproduced below. 



After arranging and sending off his plants to Europe, Bertero embraced the opportunity 

 offered by a vessel sailing for Tahiti, to go to investigate the vegetation of that island, and, 

 after making valuable collections, he took a passage to return to Valparaiso in a new 

 Tahitian schooner, which was never heard of again after leaving port. 2 A sad fate, indeed, 

 but far preferable to the shocking end of poor Douglas, who was the only botanist that 

 anticipated Bertero in the discovery of the arboreous genera of Juan Fernandez Compositae. 

 Yet Bertero was the first to make them known to the world ; and two of the genera and 

 most of the species were first published from his specimens. The third genus, Dendrosens, 

 was founded upon a specimen of one species collected in Masafuera by Cuming. The 

 arboreous Composite which constitute the most peculiar element in the native vegetation 

 were published, partly by Decaisne, 3 and partly by De Candolle ; and Colla 4 published 

 descriptions and rude figures of a large number of Bertero's Chilian and Juan Fernandez 

 plants. Fortunately, he cites in full the inscriptions on Bertero's labels, thus greatly 

 facilitating the identification of many of them. 



Here follows the substance of Bertero's sketch of the veoetation, in which are inter- 

 calated the names of the plants adopted in this work. 



The country was very well wooded, but the species of trees were few in number. The 

 Canelo (Drimys chilensis) {Drimys confertifolid], the Mayu {Zanthoxylum mayu), and 

 the Luma or Temu (Myrtus f) [Myrtus fernandeziana] were the commonest ; some 

 of the trees were of a prodigious size. Sandalwood was only found in a dead con- 

 dition, and usually half-buried in the earth. Proficients state, he says, that it is of better 

 quality than that of the Sandwich Islands. 



Although in the same latitude as Valparaiso, Juan Fernandez possesses a markedly 

 different vegetation, approaching, perhaps, nearer to that of Chiloe Island ; yet there were 

 some Californian 5 and a few New Zealand plants — Tetragonia expansa, the Zanthoxylum, 

 three species of Peperomia, and three species of tree-ferns are examples. Twelve to fifteen 

 species of ferns had taken possession of more than half of the ground ; the rest was 

 either wooded or wholly denuded of plants. A Palm, known in the country by the name 

 of "Chonta," inhabited the slopes of the highest mountains. Bertero did not see the 

 flower before it was blown, but believed this Palm should constitute a new genus. 



Resina, highly estimated in Chili on account of its reputed medicinal properties, is a 



1 Notice sur l'Histoire naturelle de File Juan Fernandez, extraite d'une lettre de M. Bertero : Annates des 

 Sciennx Nat welt ex, xxi. 1830, p. 344. 



2 Caldcleugh in Hooker's Botanical Miscellany, iii. p. 303. 



3 Guillomin's Archives de Botanique, i. et ii., and Delessert's Icones Selectae Plantarurn, iv. 



4 Plantse Eariores in Regionibus Chilensibus a Clarissimo M. D. Bertero nuper detectae et ab A. Colla in 

 lucem cditoe. — Memorie delta Eeale Accademia <l<lla Scienze di Torino, xxxvii., 1834, pp. 41-85; xxxvm., 

 1835, pp. 1-42, 117-142; xxxix., 1836, pp. 1-5G. 



This is a mistake ; the two or three ferns Bertero supposed to be the same as Californian are not so. 



