104 Plant of New South Wales. 
pound; the small branches, that appear along its sides, being 
scarcely any thing more than an expansion of the common 
receptacle—whereas in B. lunaria, the spike is “twice or 
thrice compound.” Also, in the capsules being twice as 
jarge, and the plant half as large. If 1 am correct, there- 
fore, this species will take its place as the first under the 
genus ; all the other Botrychia having compound fronds. 
Art. V.—Description of a new species of Usnea, from New 
South Shetland; by Joun Torrey, M.D. of New- 
York, (with a drawing.) 
TO PROFESSOR SILLIMAN. 
Sir, 
Tue following account of a new cryptogamic plant from 
New South Shetland, with an explanatory letter from Dr. 
Mitchill, I send for insertion in your valuable Journal. 
Letter from Dr. S. L. Mrreutnx, to Joun Torrey, M. D. 
: a New-York, July 1, 1822. 
My Dear Sir, 
Amone the subjects of rational attention at this time, is 
the land lately found, and now much frequented, beyond 
Cape Horn. 
_ Having received from several of my friends, who have 
visited that antartic region, articles of a zoological and min- 
eralogical kind, which they had brought home, I was nat- 
urally induced to inquire for botanical productions. In an- 
swer, I was informed that, notwithstanding the frequency of 
Java and volcanic slag, and the occasional eruption of smoke 
from the earth in different places, the surface was generally” 
covered with ice and snow, even during the southern sum- 
mer. ere is not a shrub, nor a tree to be seen; nor any 
appearance of verdure to cheer the prospect. 
Captain Napier however improved the opportunity of ex- 
amining a rock upon an island of the group called New 
