FalHanch, etc.] FLORA ANTARCTICA. 213 



strait of Magalhaens to be the northern limit of the Fuegian Flora eastward of Port Famine, 

 and have included in, or rather added to that Flora, all the known plants of the Pacific side 

 of the Andes, reaching north to the Chonos Archipelago. The latter position is peculiar, in 

 the Beech being there replaced, at the level of the sea, with other trees ; by the sudden change 

 in the aspect of the coast vegetation that the flora of Chiloe, immediately to the northward, 

 presents ; and by its being only a few miles beyond the " glacier-bound Gulf of Pehas," where 

 perennial ice descends to the level of the ocean in a latitude nearly midway between the 

 Equator and the Antarctic Pole. 



The successive labours of Commersou, Banks and Solander, and of Menzies, early called 

 the attention of Botanists to the singular aspect of the Fuegian Flora, apparently incompatible 

 in its luxuriance with the rigour of the climate. The subsequent exertions of Captain King 

 and Mr. Anderson, and of Darwin, dining the voyages of Captain Fitzroy, of D'Urville, and 

 the officers of our own late Antarctic Expedition, have nearly exhausted the Phaenogamic 

 productions. Much remains, however, to be done amongst the lower Orders, for the last- 

 named expedition procured from a small island in the immediate vicinity of Cape Horn, more 

 than twice as many Cryptogamic species as had been previously detected in the whole of 

 Tierra del Fuego. These, however, hardly affect the general aspect of the vegetation, which 

 may now be considered as satisfactorily known. 



The Falkland Islands rank next in botanical importance to Fuegia. Though lying to the 

 northward of the main body of that country, their vegetation is so influenced by climate and by 

 some other peculiarities common to these islands and the Patagonian plains, that they produce 

 no tree whatever. They are situated between the parallels of 51° and 53°, and the meridians 

 of 57^° and Gl|° west, and consist of an eastern and western island, nearly equal in size, and 

 together forming an oval, whose axis hes east and west and extends about 160 miles. The 

 general outline is jagged, like that of Fuegia, and similarly indented by deep inlets and rami- 

 fying bays ; but their level or undulating surface, never rising above 2000 feet, and the geo- 

 logical formation, bear no resemblance to an archipelago formed by a submerged chain of 

 mountains. Altogether, the Botanical and other characters of the Falklands are allied to the 

 Atlantic coast of Patagonia, opposite to the strait of Magalhaens, from whence they are only 

 300 miles distant. 



The most evident causes for the absence of trees in the Falkland Islands are the disloca- 

 tion or removal of that group from the main land ; then comparatively plane surface, every- 

 where exposed to the violence of the westerly gales, and more especially to the rapid evapo- 

 ration and sudden changes in temperature and in other meteorological phenomena. The 

 southerly and westerly winds are violent, cold, and often accompanied by heavy snow-storms ; 

 the easterly and northerly arrive saturated with warmer sea vapours, which, quickly condensing 

 over the already chilled surface of the sod, form fogs and mists that intercept the sun's rays ; 

 whilst the north-westerly winds are singularly dry and parching, from the influence of the 

 Patagonian plains over which they blow. Such sudden alternations from heat to cold, and 



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