PART III. 



PATAGONIAN AND FUEGIAN MOSSES. 



BY 



P. DUSEN. 



THE mosses collected by Mr. J. B. Hatcher in South America in the 

 years 1896 and 1897 are mostly from the district around the 

 sources of the Rio Chico (in about 48 S. L.) on the eastern slope 

 .of the Patagonian Cordillera. Some were collected in the vicinity of 

 Punta Arenas on the north side of the Straits of Magellan, others in the 

 southern part of Tierra del Fuego, at Ushuaia, Lapataia and Villarino ; 

 but from the Patagonian east coast there is only one species, though a 

 new one, Hypnmn perplicatum. In not a few cases no particulars are 

 given of habitations and conditions, under which the different species are 

 living. 



This collection, though not a very comprehensive one, is of great 

 interest, partly because it was brought together from a district, the Rio 

 Chico territory, which has been very seldom visited by naturalists and 

 from which, as far as I am aware, no bryological collections were previ- 

 ously derived. Altogether the Hatcherian mosses number 71 species, of 

 which no less than 24 are entirely new to science. 



Long ago C. Miiller Hal. pointed out the striking similarity existing 

 between the moss-vegetation of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego on the 

 one side, and that of Kerguelen Island, Tasmania, Auckland Island, 

 Campbell Island, New Zealand and Australia on the other. The districts 

 enumerated not only exhibit species of a very close affinity, but even 

 many identical species, a fact which is well confirmed by Hatcher's col- 

 lection, although it scarcely contains one third of the number of mosses 

 from the Fuegian territory, that are known to me. The following 

 Hatcherian species, not counting such as should be considered cosmopoli- 

 tan, are common to all or some of the above districts, namely : Dicranum 

 billardieri Schwaegr., Dicranum robustum Hook. fil. et Wils., Campylo- 

 pzts introflexus (Hedw.) Mitt, Poly trie hadelphus magellanicus (L.) Mitt., 



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