Campbell's Islands.'] FLORA ANTARCTICA. 73 



dorso convexa ; dum solitaria latiora, intus carinata. Testa utrinque in alam producta ; membrana exterior 

 laxa, membranacea, atro-fusca; interna Crustacea, aterrima, nitida, sub lente impresso-punctata. Albumen car- 

 nosum, pallide viride. Embryo axilis, filiformis, teres, paulo arcuatus, carnosus, viridis, albumine parum brevior ; 

 extremitate radiculari incrassata, obtusa : — Monstra, racernis bifidis, seu scapis divisis, dicephalis, non raro 

 occurrunt. 



I am unable to refer this to any described genus of Asphodelea, and have adopted the name* in allusion to 

 the magnificent racemes of golden-yellow nowers which it bears. It will rank near Anthericum, L., from which 

 it differs in having only one or at most two ovules and in the erect style. It is also very nearly allied to Bul- 

 binella, Kunth (En. Plant, vol. iv. p. 569), especially in general appearance; but in that genus the perianth is 

 persistent, a character probably of more importance than the number of ovules or bearded filaments, which have 

 hitherto been considered sufficient to distinguish genera too nearly allied in other respects. 



Perhaps no group of islands on the surface of the globe, of the same limited extent and so perfectly isolated, 

 can boast of three such beautiful plants, peculiar to their flora, as the Pleurophyllum speciosum (Plate XXII. & 

 XXIII.), Celmisia vernicosa (Plate XXVI. & XXVII.), and the subject of the foregoing description. The last, 

 from its greater abundance and conspicuous colour, is certainly the most striking of the three, not only giving 

 a feature to the landscape wherever it grows, but in Campbell's Island covering the swampy sides of the hills 

 in such profusion as to be distinctly visible at the distance of a full mile from shore. The specific name I have 

 given in compliment to Sir James Ross, who, during our two days' stay in this island, brought to me, 

 amongst many other new plants, one most luxuriant specimen of this, having three crowns of leaves from one 

 root and no less than seven racemes of flowers, some of which were bifid ; it was between three and four feet 

 high ; I much regretted the impossibility of preserving it whole, and the necessity there was of cutting it up 

 into many fragments. The difficulty of preserving specimens at all, in latitudes so constantly wet and stormy, is 

 very great ; especially on board ship, where, from the vicissitudes of the climate, they can rarely be exposed to 

 the air on deck : the operation is rendered doubly tedious, when, as in the islands under consideration, the vege- 

 tation is of a very succulent and coriaceous consistence. Most of my specimens required to be changed daily, and 

 the papers to be dried over a long smoke funnel which traversed Captain Ross's cabin, the limited accommodation 

 of our ships affording no other place available for this purpose. But for this privilege, constantly allowed me 

 during the voyage, and which to any one less devoted than that officer to the objects of the expedition must 

 have proved an insupportable annoyance, my collections would have been small indeed. The present plant 

 was collected on the 15th of December 1840, but not fully dried when we had reached the 78th degree of lati- 

 tude in February 1841. 



It is very natural that the great size and luxuriance of this and several other plants of the high southern 

 latitudes should excite surprise. Arguing from those countries in the northern hemisphere which are upon the 

 limits of terrestrial vegetation and which have a similarly rigorous climate, the vegetation of the former might be 

 expected to consist of small and densely tufted plants. This is however not the case, and I have endeavoured to 

 account for the apparent anomaly from the fact that the higher southern regions enjoy a singularly equable, though 

 to the human constitution always inclement climate. It is further to be remarked, that the Flora, even under these 

 circumstances of a peculiar luxuriance in individuals, is composed of very few species ; and again, that in the 

 South, hardly any state of vegetation is met with between that of considerable abundance and almost complete 

 sterility, and on ascending the mountains few or no new forms occur : the great mass of the alpine plants (even 

 on the limits of perpetual snow) being those which inhabit the open lands at the level of the ocean. The botany 

 of the densely wooded regions of the southern islands of the New Zealand group and of Fuegia is much more 

 meagre, not only than that of similarly clothed regions in Europe, but of islands many degrees nearer the North- 



VOL. I. 



* Derived from \pvcrus, gold, and fictKrpov, a staff. 



