PART IX. 



CHARACTER AND ORIGIN OF THE 

 PATAGONIAN FLORA. 



We include the mainland, and also the adjoining islands of Peraustral 

 America, as all constituting one botanical region. This is the meaning 

 of the term "Patagonian" which DeCandolle adopts in his Prodromus, 

 where he explains Patagonian Plants, "nempe in Patagonia, insulis maclo- 

 vianis, et terris magellanicis crescentes." It is incorrect to speak of this 

 as an antarctic region ; it is cold-temperate, Cape Horn being in the 

 same southern latitude as Edinburgh is northern ; and the mouth of the 

 Strait of Magellan corresponding to central England ; the Rio Sta. Cruz 

 to Land's End ; and the Rio Negro of Northern Patagonia agrees in lati- 

 tude with Madrid in Spain. Whilst southern latitudes have a more 

 rigorous climate than corresponding northern, we think that the case has 

 been greatly exaggerated by representing the Patagonian region as in any 

 way a counterpart of an Arctic climate. Botanically considered, the 

 Arctic regions can scarcely be said to possess an indigenous flora ; they 

 have struggling stragglers from lower latitudes. But in some parts of 

 the Patagonian area the indigenous flora is surprisingly rich. 



We must be satisfied by referring to Dusen's observations on the west- 

 Patagonian flora as given in this volume; and to his papers on the 

 vegetation of western Fuegia and of the Magellan's-lands named in the 

 Bibliography at p. 928. Alboff is enthusiastic in describing the splendid 

 forests of Fuegia, especially of the southern and western parts of the 

 archipelago. The scenery is shown by him to be all the more impressive 

 because it is unexpected. After coasting along the eastern seaboard of 

 the Patagonian mainland, with its gloomy, treeless barren surface of sand 

 and shingle, which extends for about a thousand kilometers along the 

 coast, and penetrating the equally uninviting parts of eastern Magellania 

 the scene changes all at once. The northern and eastern parts of Tierra 



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