398 Transactions, — Botany. 



Art. XLIII. — Campbell Island and its Flora. By J. Buchanan, F.L.S. 

 [Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, l'ith February, 1884.] 

 Plate XXXVIII. 

 In December last, the colonial s.s. " Stella " being ordered to Campbell 

 Island in search of lost seamen, an opportunity was offered to procure a 

 collection of live plants for the various botanical gardens, and also to make 

 an herbarium collection for the Museum. Having been instructed to under- 

 take the duty, and being granted the privilege of a passage by the Marine 

 Department, I provided myself with abundance of paper for plant-drying 

 purposes, carefully packed in a tin box, and other necessaries for plant- 

 collecting. After a favourable passage of three days, Campbell Island was 

 sighted in the early morning of 20th December. This island, as stated 

 in Boss's Voyage, is in lat. 52^° South and long. 169° East. It was first 

 discovered by Frederick Hazelberg in 1810 ; it is thirty miles in circum- 

 ference ; when approached from the north, it presents a precipitous rocky 

 coast, without any apparent landing-place. As the morning mists lifted and 

 cleared away, numerous outlying rocks and little islands came into view 

 swarming with flocks of sea-fowl, the whole offering to the artist picture- 

 subjects of great beauty. The accompanying sketch (No. 1., pi. xxxviii.) 

 presents a morning scene from the north-east. 



The higher coast-lands show rough broken trachy-dolerite precipices, 

 the haunt of sea-fowl, the snowy appearance of the hill ridges being due to 

 innumerable birds (chiefly the albatross) nesting. The rock sections seen 

 in the sea-cliffs have a peculiar red lined character, produced by the contact 

 of alternate layers of clays or soils with lava beds, thus presenting remark- 

 able parallel red lines on a dark groundwork of trachy-dolerite. The whole 

 coast-line is rugged in the extreme, although inland large flat areas may be 

 seen apparently covered by grasses, and indicating rich pasture ; this 

 appearance, however, on closer examination is found to be deceptive, as but 

 few grasses exist, and a coarse wet cyperaceous pasture prevails, which 

 would prove worthless as feed, unless for cattle of a hardy breed that would 

 stand the rigours of the climate. There is no doubt however that, on the 

 lower levels where soil can accumulate, a rich though coarse vegetation 

 exists, but the land is so spongy and wet that the finer grasses cannot 

 thrive. The extreme wetness of the soil is shown by the fact that wherever 

 a plant is dug out with a knife, the hole immediately fills with water, and 

 an indication is thus obtained of the treatment such plants should receive 

 when it is attempted to grow them in a drier climate. 



Peat is abundant everywhere on the hill slopes, and in such places the 

 great beauty of the Antarctic flora is seen to best advantage when con- 

 trasted with the dark coloured peaty soil. Plants such as Celmisia vernicosa, 



