84 . NATURAL HISTORY OF 



it assumes a bright yellow tint, verging on orange, and the 

 surface becomes perforated with numerous pits, which are 

 lined with the hymenium. It constitutes one of the articles 

 of food of the Fuegian Indians ; but, as Mr. Darwin has 

 remarked, it has little to recommend it, being very tasteless 

 and of a tough consistence. 



Growing in plenty under the shade of the trees were two 

 species of orchids — one, an Asarca (A. Kingii), with a 

 peduncle sometimes as much as eighteen inches high, and 

 a spike of yellow flowers ; and the other, the beautiful 

 CodonoTchis Lessonii. The latter elegant species bears a 

 slender stem, about a foot high, with two or three verticillate 

 leaves, and a terminal, solitary, rather large, triangular-shaped 

 white flower, delicately marked with purple, particularly on 

 the labellum, the upper surface of which is covered with 

 peculiar raised glands. The plant appears to possess but a 

 limited range in the Strait of Magellan, as I never met with 

 it to the westward of Port Famine ; and it is, therefore, 

 limited (in so far as my observations extend) in the Strait to 

 woods characterised by a prevalence of the Antarctic beech. 

 Two years later I found many specimens of it in woods in 

 the north of Chiloe, and probably it does not extend north- 

 wards far beyond this point. Another pretty plant obtained 

 on this occasion was the Gardamine geraniifolia, the flowers 

 of which are of a delicate white tint, and the leaves of a 

 tender green and very elegantly divided ; and two species of 

 barberry were also met with — one, the handsome Berberis 

 ilicifolia, now out of bloom ; and the other, the B. dulcis, 

 which still presented a few lingering flowers. The former of 

 these is always met with either in woods or their outskirts, 

 sometimes forming dense thickets, and the plants attain a 

 very large size, being sometimes as much as upwards of ten 



