93° 



C. SKOTTSBERG 



Fig. 40. Looking down the shallow gully of Quebrada del Pasto on Piano de la Mona, Masa- 



fuera, from a place near the Correspondenia camp, c. 1150 m. AntJwxantlium in foreground, 



behind the grass a thick bed of Lophoson'a, which forms patches on the slopes. — 



Photo 5/3 1917. 



the home of the numerous rosette-trees, the "" Robmsonia assemblage". Geology 

 and topography are dififerent, and above all, Masafuera has only four species 

 with this growth-form, Hesperoseris, already mentioned, Dendroseris niacropliylla, 

 Phoenicoseris regia and Robinsonia Masafuerae. Dendroseris grows on the walls 

 of the deep canyons down to 200 m above sea-level, and also in the ravines on 

 the table-land, Phoenicoseris and Robinsonia in the fern-beds along the ridges from 

 650 to 1350 m, always scattered, generally rare and badly damaged by the goats 

 wherever accessible. 



Nor is the scrub, one of the most important communities on Masatierra, prop- 

 erly developed; the ridges are broader and grass-covered, the shrubs scattered, 

 and only two of the leading species are found on Masafuera, Pernettya rigida 

 and Blechnum cycadifolium. The former may be met with as far down as a little 

 below 500 m, and it increases as we approach the table-land, but nowhere does 

 it form thickets at all comparable to the Masatierran scrub. 



Above the timber-line a peculiar plant community puts its stamp on the 

 landscape, Johow's "Estepa de helechos" or Fern-Steppe. It has nothing in com- 

 mon with a steppe in the current sense of this term, but it cannot be denied 

 that, physiognomically, it has some resemblance to a low savanna, a kind of 

 fern savanna, with scattered Dicksonia and an undergrowth of lower ferns, par- 



