Plants from southern Patagonia collected by Charles Wellington 
Furlong 
W. W. RowLEE 
INTRODUCTION 
During the summer of 1907-1908 (November to March), 
Mr. Furlong collected a very interesting set of specimens repre- 
senting the vegetation of southern Patagonia. The plants for 
the most part grew in the vicinity of the southern shore of Lake 
Argentine, Some, however, were secured in the journey over- 
land from the mouth of the Gallegos river. Mr. Furlong was 
working primarily on problems of ethnology and the story of his 
journey is told in Harper’s Magazine for June, 1910, and May, 
IQit. 
The vegetation of the southern end of South America has 
been a subject for investigation for many years. One of Darwin's 
most valuable works is his account of his voyage to South America. 
He ascended the Santa Cruz River, the outlet of Lake Argentine, 
far enough to see the Andes, but not far enough to discover the 
Lake. Before Darwin’s time, however, collections had been 
made especially along the Straits of Magellan; many have col- 
lected in the same region more recently. Few travellers, how- 
ever, even up to the present time have explored the inland region 
of southern Patagonia. 
If we except the so-called Antarctic Continent of the ice bound 
South polar region, it is the most southerly continental land. 
The plants inhabiting it have long been known to show affinity 
with the flora of Australia, New Zealand, and other Antarctic 
islands. This relation has led to the belief that there once existed 
@ continent in the Southern Hemisphere which connected more or 
less completely these southern land masses. The results of ant- 
arctic explorations in recent years have tended to confirm this 
theory. Fossil remains of various gymnosperms and angiosperms 
have been discovered which represent the ancestral forms of 
closely related species now widely separated geographically. 
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