24 CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO. 



I brought home, says that they ai-e the same with 

 those described by Mr. Sabine* from Valparaiso, 

 but that they form a variety which by some bota- 

 nists has been considered as specifically distinct. 

 It is remarkable that the same plant should be 

 found on the sterile mountains of central Chile, 

 where a drop of rain does not fall for more than 

 six months, and within the damp forests of these 

 southern islands. 



In the central parts of the Chonos Archipelago 

 (lat. 45°) the forest has very much the same char- 

 acter with that along the whole west coast for 600 

 miles southward to Cape Horn. The arboi'escent 

 grass of Chiloe is not found here, while the beech 

 of TieiTa del Fuego grows to a good size, and 

 forms a considerable proportion of the wood ; not, 

 however, in the same exclusive manner as it does 

 farther southward. Cryptogamic plants here find 

 a most congenial climate. In the Strait of Magel- 

 lan, as I have before remarked, the country ap- 

 pears too cold and. wet to allow of their arriving at 

 perfection ; but in these islands, within the forest, 

 the number of species, and great abundance of 

 mosses, lichens, and small fenis, is quite extraordi- 

 nary.t In Tierra del Fuego trees grow onjy on 

 the hill-sides, every level piece of land being in- 

 variably covered by a thick bed of peat ; but in 

 Chiloe flat land supports the most luxuriant forests. 



♦ Horticultural Transact., vol. v., p. 249. Mr. Caldcleugh sent 

 home two tubers, which, being well manured, even the first sea- 

 son produced numerous potatoes and an abundance of leave-s. 

 See Humboldt's interesting discussion on this plant, which it ap- 

 pears was unknown in Mexico, in Polit. Essay on New Spain, 

 book iv., chap. ix. 



t By sweeping with my insect-net, I procured from these situ- 

 ations a considerable number of minute insects, of the family of 

 Staphylinidae, and others allied to Pselaphus, and minute Hy- 

 menoptera. But the most characteristic family in number, both 

 of individuals and species, throughout the more open parts of 

 Chiloe and Chonos, is that of the Telephoridae. 



