DUSEN : THE VEGETATION OF WESTERN PATAGONIA. 1 7 



cece were evidently advancing. The production of peat was in full swing 

 here, and part of the lagoon was already invaded by peat-producing 

 plants. Both the species named seemed to be of importance in the first 

 stage of peat production and to play the same part here as Phragmites 

 does in the formation of the Scandinavian bogs. On the mounds of 

 Sphagnum, Empetrum rubrum Vahl. is abundant, generally together with 

 the species of Pseudocyphellaria named above. Low shrubs of Tepualia 

 stipularis, Pernettya mucronata, Philesia buxifolia and B ace harts sp. occur 

 sparingly on these mounds, sometimes also Blechnum pinna-marina. 

 Libocedrus tetragona and dwarfed specimens of Nothofagus betuloides are 

 far from common ; the latter should, in all probability, be regarded as on 

 the point of extinction. 



Drosera uniflora and Pingtticula antarctica are met with on the sward- 

 like beds of Gaimardia, as well as on those of Sphagnum. In places, 

 Tetroncium magellanicum and Schizcza australis Gaud, form small groups, 

 and Myrteola mimmularia is common. Carex microglochin Wahl. var. 

 fitegina Kiikenth. and magellanica Lam., Carpha schoznoides Banks et 

 Sol. and Deschampsia kingii are rather scarce. Of the phanerogamic 

 plants enumerated as peculiar to the peat-bogs, only one, Schwnodon 

 chilensis, and also the fern Schizcea australis, are absent from west Pata- 

 gonia and Fuegia, although the latter may be found there, as it is known 

 from the Falkland Islands. 



From a morphological point of view the phanerogamic flora of the peat- 

 bogs of the Guaitecas shows many similarities with that of the Scan- 

 dinavian bogs. For instance, Empetrum rubrum exactly resembles in 

 habit Empetrum nigrum L., and Carex magellanica is common to both 

 districts. Tetroncium magellanicum has its morphological counterpart 

 northwards in Narthecium ossifragum Huds., and Myrteola nummularia 

 in Oxycoccus palustris Pers. But in many cases, naturally, such a cor- 

 respondence does not exist. Thus Eriophorum vaginatum L., so com- 

 mon in Scandinavian bogs, has no morphological counterpart in the Pat- 

 agonian, just as, vice versa, Donatia, Astelia, Oreobolus and Gaimardia 

 have none in the Scandinavian peat-bogs. 



It now remains for me to give some account of the vegetation of the 

 higher and treeless portions of these islands. They were once wooded, 

 partly at least, but their trees have either been cut down or destroyed by 

 fires. In places the forest is now regaining its lost ground. 



