28 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I BOTANY. 



cematorhyncha f. gracilis, plentiful here and there. Of grasses, Bromus 

 catharticus and Elymus albowianus are predominant. 



Subjoined is a list of species composing the undergrowth : 



Berberis microphylla Forst. Osmorhiza berterii DC. 



danvinii Hook. Ribes cucullatum Hook, et Arn. 



ilicifolia Linn. fil. sp. (probably R. magellanicum Poir.). 



Galium aparine L. Geranium magellanicum Hook. fil. 



fuegianum Lam. Geum magellanicum Comm. 



Vicia doropskyana Phil. Calceolaria danvinii Benth. 



Lathyrus magellanicus Lam. Uncinia phleoides Pers. 



Mutisia retusa Remy. Carex filiformis, subsp. amatorhyncha, f. gra- 



decurrens Cav. cilis. 



Solidago chilensis Meyen. Alopecurus alpinus Sm. 



Leuceria sp. Trisetum subspicatum Beauv. 



Adenocaulon chilense Less. Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) Trin. 



Cerastium arvense L. Bromus catharticus Mol. 



Stellaria cuspidata Willd. Elymus albowianus Kurtz. 



Fragaria chilensis Ehrh. Blechnum pinna-marina (Poir.). 



Accena onalifolia Ruiz et Pav. Polystichum elegans Remy. 



On the trunks of the trees are only a few species of mosses generally 

 massed together, namely, Zygodon gracillimMS and Z. curvicaulis, Brachy- 

 thecium sericeo-nitens sp. nov. and Barbula flagellaris, in addition to a 

 single representative of the Hepaticce, Lophocolea ciicullistipula. I have 

 already referred to the lichens. 



The space occupied by the community of deciduous beeches is not alto- 

 gether continuous, because, as already mentioned, there are small steppes 

 within the forest, of one or two kilometers in extent, which are found 

 even very far to the west. The boundary between these steppes and the 

 encircling forest is, as a rule, sharply defined, but sometimes there is an 

 intermediate belt of very dense thickets of Berberis microphylla. The fact 

 that the beech-nuts never spread very far from the mother-tree might 

 account for this well-defined boundary between the forest and the steppe. 



III. THE STEPPE DISTRICT. 



i. THE SMALL STEPPES. 



The vegetation of the large steppe district to the eastward of the Aysen 

 valley I know only through my exploration of the small isolated steppes 

 within the forest. That, on the whole, their vegetation gives a correct idea 



