Scott. — Mctcquarie Island. 487 



mosses near the hill-tops, are all that strike the eye in looking at the island 

 from the sea. This paucity of species is, as we shall see again, one of the 

 characteristics of the flora of antarctic islands. 



The rocks of the island belong to the older crystallines, greenstones. 

 They have occasionally an amygdaloidal structure, the amygdules some- 

 times containing zeolites. Mesotype, with concentric radiated fibrous 

 structure, occurs in one of my specimens ; and in another, what is probably 

 analcime, is to be seen. The rocks are sometimes veined with quartz. 



Botany. 

 Unfortunately the season at which I visited the island was not well suited 

 for collecting plants. I was there in November and in these latitudes 

 spring is but little advanced in that month. I therefore found compar- 

 atively few plants in flower. This of course has added much to the diffi- 

 culty of identifying my specimens, and combined with the thick weather has 

 helped to make my collection smaller than it might have been under more 

 favourable circumstances. There are certain plants, common in the Camp- 

 bell and Auckland Islands, which may, for these reasons, have been over- 

 looked by me in Macquarie Island, such as the AntJiericum rossii, a lily, 

 whose golden flowers are said by Hooker to form a very striking object in a 

 Campbell Island landscape ; if present, however, it cannot be at all common. 

 Another genus which one might expect to find, but which I did not meet with, 

 is the Veronica. A plant so common in New Zealand and in the Campbell 

 and Auckland Islands, at all elevations, ought surely to have some represent- 

 ative in Macquarie Island. I have little doubt but that my collection is 

 imperfect, but even allowing largely for that, it shows that many species 

 have disappeared which are common in the Auckland and Campbell Islands, 

 and that those plants which are present have a much more stunted growth. 



Those plants I did collect, however, are, with one exception (the Azov- 

 ella selar/o), distinctly New Zealand in their characters, quite as much so 

 as those belonging to the Auckland or Campbell Islands ; and they also 

 show that all these islands agree in having, in common with all other 

 antarctic islands, a flora characterized by few species, but what there 

 are, growing luxuriantly. This is very distinctly seen in Macquarie Island, 

 where the number of species of flowering plants is certainly most limited, 

 but where great areas are covered by a close growth of Stilbocarpa and 

 Pleurophyllum. 



It is curious to contrast the poverty of Macquarie Island in floweriug 

 plants with the richness of countries in the northern hemisphere. The 

 corresponding north latitude runs through the north of England ; and 

 even in islands in very much higher north latitudes, such as Spitzbergen, 

 this greater richness in their flora is to be observed. 



