BOOKS AND CURRENT LITERATURE 55 



Vegetation of Southern South America. — Our knowledge of the 

 vegetation and flora of southern Chile and the Patagonian Andes has 

 been greatly amplified by the results of the Swedish Expedition of 1907- 

 1909, led by Dr. Carl Skottsberg. A preliminary paper 1 published in 1910 

 gave an outline of the geobotanical results and a map of the distribution 

 of the leading types of forest. In a more recent publication 2 Dr. Skotts- 

 berg has given in full the florist ic and plant geographical results of the 

 expedition. Although the botanical features of the coast itself were 

 heretofore poorly known, we now have an extended description of the 

 vegetation based on an overland journey of 1500 km. down the Andine 

 valleys from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas. The composition of the 

 forests is given in detail and equal attention has been bestowed on the 

 strand, bogs, swamps, alpines and savanna throughout this little-known 

 region. 



From 41° to 48° S. the coast and numerous islands are occupied by a 

 temperate rain-forest in which about 25 evergreen broad-leaved trees 

 are common, the most frequent being species of the antartic beech (No- 

 thofagus dombeyi and N. nitida). This forest is rich in lianes and epi- 

 phytes as well as in ferns, including the Hymenophyllaceae. Slender 

 climbing bamboos are abundant and epiphytic and terrestrial mosses 

 are omnipresent, the latter sometimes reaching a height of 30 cm. 



The Chilean coast from 48° S. to Cape Horn is occupied by a type of 

 rain-forest which is low in stature, poor in number of tree species and 

 with few lianes and epiphytes. The leading trees of this region are 

 Nothofagus betuloides, Drimys winteri (Magnoliaceae), and the conifers 

 Libocedrus tetragona and Podocarpus nubigena, which occur gregariously 

 in a low forest sometimes no more than 12 to 15 feet in height. The 

 valleys on the Patagonian side of the Andes are' occupied by a deciduous 

 forest in which the characteristic trees are Nothofagus pumilio and N. 

 antarctica. The Patagonian "steppe" is occupied by a diversified grass- 

 land,with shrubs, root-perennials and streamside trees. The dominant 

 grasses are species of Festuca and Mulinum, and among the shrubs are 

 representatives of Ephedra, Berberis, Lycium, Baccharis and many other 

 genera not so familiar to North American botanists. 



1 Skottsberg, Carl. Botanische Ergebnisse der schwedischen Expedition nach 

 Patagonien und dem Feuerlande 1907-1909. I. Ubersicht tiber die wichtigsten 

 Pflanzenformationen. Kungl. Svenska Vetens. Hand. 46; Xo. 3: 1-28, with map. 

 1910. 



2 Skottsberg, Carl. Botanische Ergebnisse der swedischen Expedition nach 

 Patagonien und dem Feuerlande 1907-1909. V. Die Vegetations-verhaltnisse 

 langs der Cordillera de los Andes S. von 41° S. br. Kungl. Svenska Vetens. Hand. 

 56: No. 5: 1-366, Pis. 23. 1916. 



