THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 303 



rmall, but I found one, of an oval shape, two inches in 

 diameter : they resembled in every respect, and had the same 

 smell as English potatoes ; but when boiled they shrunk much, 

 and were watery and insipid, without any bitter taste. They 

 are undoubtedly here indigenous : they grow as far south, 

 according to Mr. Low, as lat. 50, and are called Aquinas by 

 the wild Indians of that part: the Chilotan Indians have a 

 different name for them. Professor Henslow, who has ex- 

 amined the dried specimens which I brought home, says that 

 they are the same with those described by Mr. Sabine 1 from 

 Valparaiso, but that they form a variety which by some 

 botanists 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 character with that along 

 the whole west coast, for 600 miles southward to Cape Horn. 

 The arborescent grass of Chiloe is not found here ; while the 

 beech of Tierra 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. Crypto- 

 gamic plants here find a most congenial climate. In the Strait 

 of Magellan, as I have before remarked, the country appears 

 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 ferns, is quite 

 extraordinary.* In Tierra del Fuego trees grow only on the 

 hillsides; every level piece of land being invariably covered 

 by a thick bed of peat; but in Chiloe flat land supports the 

 most luxuriant forests. Here, within the Chonos Archipel- 

 ago, the nature of the climate more closely approaches that 



1 Horticultural Transact., vol. v. p. 249. Mr. Caldcleugh sent home 

 two tubers, which, being well manured, even the first season produced 

 numerous potatoes and an abundance of leaves. See Humboldt's interest- 

 ing discussion on this plant, which it appears was unknown in Mexico, 

 in Polit. Essay on New Spain, book iv. chap. ix. 



* By sweeping with my insect-net, I procured from these situations a 

 considerable number of minute insects, of the family of Staphylinidae, and 

 others allied to Pselaphus, and minute Hymenoptera. But _the most char- 

 acteristic family in number, both of individuals and species, throughout 

 the more open parts of Chiloe and Chonos is that of the Telephone!*. 



