174 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



summit a green trilobed viscid stigma, passes. The appear- 

 ance presented by a cluster of these beautiful flowers hanging 

 pendant from the branch of a tree is most attractive. The 

 plant ranges from Valdivia in South Chili, where it is deno- 

 minated Pepino, to the south of Fuegia. In the Strait of 

 Magellan I did not meet with it to the east of Port Gallant, 

 nor did I encounter it in the island of Chiloe, though I found 

 it in the Chonos Archipelago. Double flowers occasionally 

 occur. In one of these I found eighteen instead of six divi- 

 sions of the perianth present, some of which had been formed 

 at the expense of the stamens, which were reduced in number. 

 The fruit of the plant is a rounded hard green berry, contain- 

 ing rugose seeds imbedded in a gelatinous pulp. 



The principal trees of which the woods were here com- 

 posed were the evergreen beech and the Winter' s-bark, but 

 some large specimens of a kind of cypress {Libocedrus tetra- 

 gonus) were growing round the water's edge. Their bark was 

 of a bright reddish tint, like that of the Scotch fir, and the 

 foliage, which a good deal resembled that of a Thuja, was 

 dark green. Though apparently not very common at Port 

 Gallant, this tree becomes very abundant towards the west- 

 ward, forming one of the most conspicuous features of the 

 forests in the western part of the Strait and the Channels, and 

 extending at least as far north as Chiloe, where it is termed 

 " Cipres." The "Alerse" of the Chilians, erroneously referred 

 to this tree by King, belongs to a distinct genus, Fitzroya, 

 which probably does not occur to the south of the Gulf of 

 Penas, if so far. The wood of the '' Cipres " is employed by 

 the Chilians for building purposes, although I believe they 

 consider it much inferior in value to that of the " Alerse ; " 

 and the Fuegian Indians make use of the straight tough stems 

 of the young trees for shafts for their spears. . 



