274 FLOEA ANTARCTICA. [Fuegia, the 



containing a very minute embryo, whose precise form and direction I have not been able to trace, and the endocarp is 

 often loose within the sarcocarp, externally covered with bullate opaque glands, which are sometimes seen under the 

 cuticle of the anther and in other parts of the plant. In the shrubby habit, articulated stems, and in the opposite 

 glabrous leaves, Ascarina differs very conspicuously from Gunnera. 



Batiscea is another order with which Gunnera coincides in many important points, as in the often tetramerous 

 structure of the flowers, their unisexual nature, the absence of a corolla, the form of the stamens, which are in Batisca 

 attached to the laciniae of the calyx, while these laciniaj, in Gunnera, appear like adnate bracteas, in the absence 

 even of rudiments of an ovarium in the male flower, especially in there being two styles to each carpel, in the albu- 

 minous seed and erect embryo, which is of a different shape and form from that of Gunnera, though similar to that of 

 Haloragea proper. On the other hand, Batisca differs from this in many respects, most remarkably in the many 

 ovuled parietal placenta?, in the form of the pollen, in the composition of the carpels and their dehiscence, and in 

 the form of the seed and testa, which approaches to that of some Saxifragea. 



In its native state, Gunnera scabra must be a very noble plant, its foliage being amongst the largest of Dico- 

 tyledonous vegetables. Mi - . Darwin * mentions having measured single leaves eight feet in diameter, or no less than 

 twenty-four feet in circumference. The stalks are more than a yard high and each bears four or five of these enormous 

 leaves. I have no specimens from this locality, but introduce the plant on the authority of Mr. Darwin's Journal, 

 where it is stated that " the ' Panke ' inhabits sand-stone cliffs, and somewhat resembles Rhubarb on a gigantic 

 scale. The inhabitants cut the stalks, which are subacid, tan leather from the roots, and procure a black dye 

 from it." 



2. Gunnera (Misandra) Magellanica, Lamk. Diet. vol. iii. p. 61. t. 801. f. 2. G. Falklandica, Hook. 

 Ic. Plant, t. 489. Misandra Magellanica, Commerson in Jussieu Gen. 405. Gaud, in Ann. Sc. Nat. vol. v. 

 p. 89. Freyc. Yoy. Sot. p. 502. IfUrville in Mem. Soc. Linn. Paris, vol. iv. p. 621. Dysernone integri- 

 foba, Banks et Sol. MSS. in Mus. Banks cum icone. "Mauve/' Pernefty Voy. vol. ii. p. 58. 



Hab. South Chili, Fuegia and the Falkland Islands, very abundant ; Commerson, Banks and Solander, 

 Capt. King, and all subsequent voyagers. 



I find in Fuegia the same variety, or rather s*ate of this plant, which is called Falklandica in the ' Icones Plan- 

 tarum,' and I have introduced that name as a synonyme. 



The Misandra have been separated from the true Gunnera by then' dioecious flowers being destitute of a corolla, 

 to which might be added their humble mode of growth, and male flowers consisting of a solitary stamen bracteolated 

 at the base and collected into a dense panicle or arranged in a spike. The characters drawn from the inflorescence, are 

 not however decisive ; one New Zealand species, Gunnera monoica, Raoul, is monoecious, and a second, G.prorepem, 

 mihi, has petals. Generally speaking, Misandra is the more southern representative of Gunnera proper. Thus, 

 whilst Java has G. macrophylla, Blume, Tasmania possesses Milligania ; Otaheite G. petaloidea, Gaud., while 

 New Zealand (whose flora partakes of that of the Pacific Islands), has three species of Misandra ; and lastly, Peru, 

 Chili, and Juan Fernandez, have G. Chi/eusis and G. bracteata, and Fuegia, M. Magellanica and M. lobata. 



G. Magellanica is one of the most abundant of Antarctic American plants, from Valdivia to Cape Horn, and espe- 

 cially in the Falkland Islands, where it is eaten by cattle. On the mountains near Cape Horn it ascends to 1,000 

 feet. Apparently the same species, without flower, has been collected by Professor Jameson on the Andes of Quito. 



3. Gunneka (Misandra) lobata, Hook, fib; dioica, canle repente radicante, petiobs rufo-pilosis, fobis 

 rotundatis profuiide 5-7 lobis coriaceis nervis subtus pilosis lobis rotundatis obtusis integerrimis marginibus 



* Journal, ed.i. p. 3-tO. 



