2 FLORA ANTARCTICA. [Auckland and 



those few novel forms that appear only in the most arctic parts of America. Even 

 between the floras of Lord Auckland's and Campbell's Islands a marked difference 

 exists, several species growing most abundantly in the latter which are not found at all 

 in the former, where also the proportion of species common to other Antarctic coun- 

 tries is less, and the affinity is greater with the productions of New Zealand. 



Lord Auckland's Group. — A view of this small and very limited group, of about 

 twenty miles long and eleven in its greatest breadth, as it appears on approaching from 

 the sea, presents an almost equal distribution of wood, shrubs, and pasture-land. The 

 mountains are low and undulating, nowhere exceeding 1400 or 1500 feet, clothed for 

 their greater part, but scarcely to the very summits, with long grass, and frequently 

 covered during November and December, though not generally, with snow. The 

 climate is rainy and very stormy, so that on the windward sides the plants are stunted 

 and checked, and resemble those of a higher southern latitude, or of an elevation several 

 hundred feet above that which the same species inhabit on the sheltered parts. The 

 whole group of islands appears formed of volcanic rocks, mostly of black trap, whose 

 decomposition, especially among the ranker vegetation of the lower grounds, produces 

 a deep rich soil. A Myrtaceous tree (Metrosideros umbellata) forms the larger pro- 

 portion of the wood near the sea, and intermixed with it grow an arborescent species 

 of Dracophyllum, several Coprosmas, Veronicas (frutescent) , and a Panax. Under these, 

 and particularly close to the sea-beach, many Ferns abound ; conspicuous among them 

 is a species with caulescent or subarborescent stems half a foot and upwards in diameter, 

 crowned with handsome spreading tufts of fronds. Beyond the wooded region, some 

 of the same plants, in a dwarf state, mingled with others, compose a shrubby broad 

 belt, which ascends the hill to an elevation of 800 or 900 feet, gradually opening out 

 into grassy slopes, and succeeded by the alpine vegetation. It is especially towards 

 the summits of these hills that the most striking plants are found, vying in brightness 

 of colour with the Arctic Flora, and unrivalled in beauty by those of any other Antarctic 

 country. Such are the species of Gentian, and a Veronica with flowers of the intensest 

 blue, several magnificent Composite, a Ranunculus, a Phyllachne, and a Liliaceous plant 

 whose dense spikes of golden flowers are often so abundant as to attract the eye from a 

 considerable distance. Here too the vegetable types of other Antarctic lands may be 

 seen in the greatest number, and even such as are analogous to the Arctic productions, 

 none of which can be more decided than a species of Hierochloe, Potentilla, Cardamine, 

 Juncus, Drosera, Plantago, Epilobium, several Grasses, and Mosses belonging to the 

 genera Andraa, Conostomum and Bartramia. Many of the plants in the lower grounds 

 are no less striking and beautiful, as an arborescent Veronica bearing a profusion of 

 white blossoms, a maritime Gentian, a handsome large-flowered Myosotis, the magnifi- 

 cent Aralia polaris (Hombr. and Jacq.), two fine kinds of Anisotome, and several beau- 

 tiful Ferns. 



