THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 335 



not far from the beach, and among these a Gesneraceous creeper 

 the Sarmienta repens, was very conspicuous, covering the stems 

 and branches of the trees with its curious fleshy round leaves 

 and handsome scarlet flowers, which are about an inch long, 

 with a dilated tube narrowed at either end and surmounted 

 by five rounded small lobes. Mitraria coccinea also occurred 

 in great luxuriance ; and a plant of the mistletoe order, the 

 LorantJius tetrandrus, widely distributed in Chili, formed 

 large masses on many of the trees and shrubs — its narrow 

 tubular flowers in many places forming a perfect blaze of 

 scarlet. Another plant, not less beautiful but much more 

 familiar, was our common foxglove, Digitalis ^purpurea, 

 which seems to have become extensively naturalised in the 

 north of Chiloe, though I never observed it in any of the 

 localities visited by us at a later period in Chili proper. 

 This day a barque, the "Alianza," bringing us supplies of 

 provisions and coal from Valparaiso, arrived. 



On the 31st I remained on board all day, busily occupied 

 in preserving and stowing away specimens. Heavy rain fell 

 during the most of the forenoon, but the weather cleared up 

 later in the day. Captain Mayne, who had been absent at the 

 town of Ancud, returned, bringing with him the cranium of 

 a Chonos Indian, and three stone hatchet-heads from the 

 Guaytecas Islands, given to him for my behoof by a Eussian 

 gentleman whom he had met. The hatchet-heads resembled 

 closely in their details those of the aborigines of many parts of 

 the world, hardly differing from ancient specimens of British 

 manufacture, and thus affording a striking exemplification 

 of the similarity which often prevails between the primitive 

 implements of nations widely removed from each other. 

 Another curious instance of *' homoplastic " resemblance 

 noticed by me soon after this was furnished by the primi- 



