CHAPTER VI 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 

 1843— 1882 



Letter 313 To J. D. Hooker 



Down, Tuesday [Dec. I2th, 1843]. 



I am very much obliged to you for you; interesting letter. 

 I have long been very anxious, even for as short a sketch as 

 you have kindly sent me of the botanical geography of the 

 southern hemisphere. I shall be most curious to see your 

 results in detail. From my entire ignorance of Botany, I am 

 sorry to say that I cannot answer any of the questions which 

 you ask me. I think I mention in my Journal that I found 

 my old friend the southern beech (I cannot say positively 

 which species), on the mountain-top, in southern parts of 

 Chiloe and at level of sea in lat. 45 , in Chonos Archipelago. 

 Would not the southern end of Chiloe make a good division 

 for you ? I presume, from the collection of Brydges and 

 Anderson, Chiloe is pretty well known, and southward begins 

 a terra incognita. I collected a few plants amongst the 

 Chonos Islands. The beech being found here and peat being 

 found here, and general appearance of landscape, connects 

 the Chonos Islands and T. del Fuego. I saw the Alerce ' 

 on mountains of Chiloe (on the mainland it grows to an 

 enormous size, and I always believed Alerce and Araucaria 

 imbricata to be identical), but I am ashamed to say I abso- 

 lutely forget all about its appearance. I saw some Juniper- 



1 " Alerse " is the local name of a South American timber, described 

 in Capt. King's Voyages of the " Adventure" and " Beagle" p. 281, 

 and rather doubtfully identified with Thuja tetra^ona, Hook. {Flora 

 Antarctica, p. 350). 



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