342 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



while here and there a patch of pasture-ground occurred, or a 

 tiny village peeped out through a gap in the forest. Enter- 

 ing a winding passage between the main island and the islet 

 of Caucahue, we anchored at three p.m. in a beautiful sheltered 

 nook (Oscuro Cove of the charts), and soon after several of 

 us landed, and had a pleasant walk up to the head of the 

 cove. The vegetation, as at Ancud, was chiefly composed of 

 Myrtaceous shrubs, many of which were in bloom, and pre- 

 sented a very elegant appearance ; but we also observed a 

 few examples of a low tree which was new to us, and remark- 

 able for the possession of handsome, solitary, drooping, bright 

 crimson flowers, nearly an inch long, on elongated axillary 

 peduncles. This was the Tricuspidaria {Crinodendron) 

 Hookeriana, one of the Eleocarpem. Its petals, five in num- 

 ber, are saccate at the base, and toothed at the apex, and the 

 form of the flower at once strikes one as peculiar, the petals 

 converging from the base to the apex. Most of the flowers 

 had dropped off, and were succeeded by the capsules, which 

 were about the size of a large cherry, green in tint, some- 

 what downy, and containing from twelve to fourteen seeds in 

 irregular loculi. On the beach we found some very large 

 dead valves of the Mytilus CJiilensis ("Choros" of the Chilians, 

 by whom they are much esteemed), one specimen of which 

 measured upwards of seven inches in length, as well as 

 accumulations of the outer shells of a huge barnacle, the 

 Balanus psittacus, which is likewise regarded as a great deli- 

 cacy. I believe it principally occurs on the southern part of 

 the coast of Chili, from Chiloe to Concepcion, and it frequently 

 attains dimensions of nearly six inches in length by upwards 

 of two in breadth. The terga are remarkable for being pro- 

 longed above into two slender elongated processes, whence 

 the specific name. We observed a considerable variety of 



