IHE VF.GETATION OF THE JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLANDS 



889 



Fi}<. 32. Quebrada Laura, Masatierra. ..j>jk.;,^ Nor:., lo.ww^ ;..c :-ca. 

 some water in the stream-bed. Left, patches of Araena argentea. 



August 1917. 



Photo K. Backstrom 



(St. 18). The gullies of Rabanal so named on account of the rabanos (/?^///^«ai" 

 sativus) once abundant in this place end on a broad alluvial plain, where, in 1917, 

 Silybiun mariamim (PI. %^) was in dominance. The lower slopes of the gullies 

 were filled with maqui iFg. 34I, but higher up native trees appear; there was some 

 maqui everywhere, and the forest is degraded iPls. 69, 80). Probably this valley 

 was once wooded right down toward the sea. 



Cordon Centinela between Rabanal and Pangal can be followed up to the 

 main ridge. Toward the sea the slopes and crest are ver\- barren, but as we reach 

 an altitude of 300 m, good forest is met with, at 400 m the lower montane type 

 is well de\eloped. Dicksonia begins to appear, and about 300 m the ridge is covered 

 with forest, low and rather thin on the very crest, but abounding in large terns 

 and with several representatives or the Robinsonia assemblage (St. 15, 20*. and on 

 the flanks, which are \er\- steep, there is virgin forest which, at about 550 m, has 

 the character of a typical fern forest with dominant Dicksonia and an abundance 

 of Weymoiithia and filmy ferns. The occurrence of Byssocau/on 7iiveuin in the fern 

 forest is noteworthy. At about 780 m we reach the main range, covered with 

 the kind of scrub inhabiting all the elevated, exposed ridges, a community char- 

 acterized by Ugni Selkirkii, Pernettya, Gioinera bi-acteata, Blcchnum cycadifolium 

 etc. (St. 30, PI. 92: 2). 



59 — 516796. The Sat. Hist, of Juan Fernandez and Easter Isl. Vol. II. 



