REESE 



PART I. 



THE VEGETATION OF WESTERN PATAGONIA. 



BY 



P. DUSEN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



IN the years 1895-1897 I travelled in Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, and 

 southern Chili on a general exploration of the botany and geology of 

 that section, but making the moss-vegetation of the several districts 

 the subject of my particular attention. It was therefore a great pleasure 

 to me, on my return from South America, to receive for examination, 

 from Professor George Macloskie, of Princeton University, a collection of 

 mosses, which had been brought home from Tierra del Fuego and Pata- 

 gonia by Mr. J. B. Hatcher. Before giving an account of these mosses, I 

 may perhaps be allowed in a few words to describe the leading features 

 of the western Patagonian vegetation. There is, I think, all the more 

 need for this course, as our knowledge of this vegetation is very incom- 

 plete, being founded on only a few short notes in the books of Charles 

 Darwin, R. O. Cunningham and a few other travellers, and on statements 

 scattered through certain purely floristic works. For the northernmost 

 section of western Patagonia we have a couple of detailed accounts by Dr. 

 Ch. Reiche, describing the vegetation along the Rio Manso, which flows 

 into the Reloncavi Inlet, and that of the district around the mouths of the 

 Rio Palena. We have hardly any other information on the subject. 



The following description of the western Patagonian vegetation is 

 founded upon my own explorations in the westernmost parts of the Straits 

 of Magellan, in Newton Island (lat. 51 53' S.), at Puerto Bueno (about 

 51 S.) and along Molyneux Sound" (about 50 16' S.), also upon my 

 observations as a member of an expedition to the Rio Aysen, the expenses 

 of which were defrayed by the Chilian government, and during a subse- 

 quent exploration of the Guaitecas Islands (about 43 50' S.). 



