Campbell's Islands.] FLORA ANTARCTICA. 3 



Campbell's Island, two degrees to the southward of Lord Auckland's group, is 

 smaller, far more steep and rocky, with narrow sheltered valleys, and the broader faces 

 of the hills much exposed, and hence bare of any but a grassy vegetation. Except in 

 the bays, the coast is as iron-bound as that of St. Helena, the rocks assuming even a 

 wilder and more fantastic form. Ever lashed by heavy swells, and exposed to a suc- 

 cession of westerly gales, this land affords no holding-place for such trees as skirt the 

 beaches of Lord Auckland's Islands. In the narrow, sinuous bays, however, the scene 

 is quite changed, for they are often margined by a slender belt of brushwood, with an 

 abundant undergrowth of Ferns, stretching up the steep and confined guileys. 



The geological features of the two islands are alike, and the only difference in cli- 

 mate consists in that of Campbell's Island being still more forbidding and dreary. Fogs, 

 snow-squalls and mists are the prevailing meteorological phenomena of these regions, 

 and though such a state of atmosphere has a tendency to check the general mass of 

 vegetation, still the constant moisture and equable temperature thus afforded support 

 a luxuriant herbage in the very sheltered valleys. In Campbell's Island, the mountains, 

 which rise very abruptly to about 1300 feet, are almost bare of vegetation, their rocky 

 sides presenting a larger proportion of Grasses, Mosses and Lichens than in Lord Auck- 

 land's group. Though all the handsomer plants are also found in the larger of the 

 latter islands, yet, by growing here at a much lower elevation and in far greater abun- 

 dance, they form a more striking feature in the landscape, the golden-flowered Liliaceous 

 plant being conspicuous, from its profusion, at the distance of a mile from the shore. 



I. RANUNCULACEjE, Juss. 



1. Ranunculus (Hecatonia) pinguis, Hook. fil. ; acaulis, carnosus, pilosus, foliis omnibus 

 radicalibus longe petiolatis reniformi-rotundatis crenato-lobatis, petiolis basi late vaginantibus, sea- 

 pis crassis nudis v. 1-2-bracteatis folia aequantibus unifloris, sepalis 5-8 calyce brevioribus obovato- 

 cuneatis v. linearibus, nectariis 3 quandoque nullis v. obsoletis, carpellis numerosissimis in capitulum 

 globosum arete congestis vix compressis utrinque subalatis dorsoque carinatis stylo valido recto bi- 

 alato apice ssepe uncinato terminatis. (Tab. I.) 



Var. (3. pilosus ; minor, petiolis foliis scapis calycibusque magis pilosis, petalis linearibus sepalis J bre- 

 vioribus, nectariis 3 valde distinctis. 



Var. y. rhombifolius ; minor, foliis subrotundo-rhombeis 3-5-fidis segmentis subacutis crenato-dentatis 

 v. integris. 



Hab. Lord Auckland's group, a and /3 in boggy places on the hills, alt. 1000 feet; and from 

 the sea to the mountain tops, alt. 1 200 feet, in Campbell's Island. 7. Rocky places in Lord Auck- 

 land's group, alt. 1200 feet, rare. 



b2 



