THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 83 



On penetrating into the woods, my interest was speedily 

 excited by a variety of plants, among which the following 

 were the most striking: — On the branches of many of the 

 beech-trees were numerous rounded nest-like masses, about 

 the size of the human head, and of a yellowish colour. These 

 proved to be formed of a curious leafless parasitic plant, allied 

 to mistletoe, a species of the genus Myzodendron, the M. 

 pundulatum. The Myzodendra are, I believe, limited to 

 southern South America, occurring in the forests from Cape 

 Horn as far as Valdiviva. Four or five species have been 

 described fromFuegia, and their structure and method of growth 

 have been fully elucidated by Dr. Hooker in the Flora Antarctica, 

 to which I must refer the reader for full details concerning 

 them. The most striking peculiarity of the genus consists in the 

 possession by the fruit of a plumose pappus, composed of 

 three downy-looking setae, formed of very delicate elongated 

 viscid cells, filled with a glutinous matter like that of the fruit 

 of the mistletoe, and which serve to attach the fruit to the 

 tree, till the seed germinates and takes root in the bark. On 

 a subsequent occasion I met with a second species (M. hrachy- 

 stachyum) also occurring on the beeches, but differing from the 

 M. pundulatum in the possession of leaves, and the much 

 greater thickness of the twigs. 



Another parasitic plant, of a very different order, of 

 which I obtained many specimens in all stages of growth, 

 was the remarkable Cyttaria Darwinii, an ascomycetous 

 fungus, which, like the Myzodendra, occurs on the stems and 

 branches of the deciduous and evergreen beeches. It is of a 

 nearly spherical form, varying in size, according to its age, 

 from the dimensions of a pea to those of a moderate-sized 

 apple. When young it is of a pale yellowish-white colour, 

 and has a uniform smooth surface ; but, as it advances in age, 



