392 gUBANTARCTlC ISLANDS OF KEW 2;EALANt). [Systematic Botany. 



Geranium, and Epilobium, two beautiful white- and red-fiowered gentians, and a 

 forget-me-not with flowers much larger than those of any English species." I have 

 quoted these passages not only because they give a vivid picture of the salient fea- 

 tures of the vegetation, but because they evidence the ardour and enthusiasm with 

 which the two naturalists of the expedition pursued their investigations. 



Departing from the Auckland Islands on the 12th December, Campbell Island 

 was reached on the morning of the 13th, the ships anchoring in Perseverance Har- 

 bour. A stay of four days only was made, the expedition leaving on the 17th Decem- 

 ber for a cruise to the Antarctic Circle and the south polar regions ; but notwith- 

 standing the shortness of the visit a good deal of botanical work was done. Eespecting 

 the character of the vegetation. Hooker remarks, in the publication already quoted 

 from (p. 158), " Although Campbell Island is situated 120 miles to the southward 

 of Lord Auckland's Group, and is of much smaller extent, it probably contains fully 

 as many native plants. This arises from its more varied outline, and from its steep 

 precipices and contracted ravines, affording situations more congenial to the growth 

 of grasses, mosses, and lichens. Its ironbound coast and rocky mountains, whose 

 summits appear to the eye bare of vegetation, give it the aspect of a very desolate 

 and unproductive rock, and it is not until the quiet harbours are opened that any 

 green hue, save a few grassy spots, is seen. In these narrow bays the scene suddenly 

 changes : a belt of brushwood, composed of some of the trees mentioned as inhabitants 

 of the last-visited island, but in a very stunted state, form a verdant line close to the 

 beach. This is succeeded by bright-green slopes, so studded with the Chrysohactron 

 as to give them a yellow tinge, visible a full mile from the shore. Most of the beauti- 

 ful plants of Lord Auckland's Group, including the elegant caulescent ferns, are 

 equally abundant here, and from many of them growing in this higher latitude at a 

 proportionally lower elevation, their beauty strikes every one on first landing." 



In 1843 Ross returned to England. The important scientific results obtained 

 by the expedition, and the large collections amassed during the voyage, both pointed 

 to the desirability of speedy publication ; and through the liberality of the Admiralty 

 this was promptly arranged for. The botanical portion was intrusted to Hooker, 

 and a special vote of £2,000 was granted to defray the cost of printing and illustrat- 

 ing the work. The result is found in the two volumes of the superb " Flora Ant- 

 arctica," a publication in every way worthy of the importance of the subject and 

 the reputation of its distinguished author. The first volume, issued in 1844-45, 

 is confined to the plants of the Auckland and Campbell Islands, and will always 

 remain the foundation for investigations into the botany of the islands. A brief 

 analysis of its contents (after deducting two or three naturalised plants, and including 

 some additional species mentioned in the second volume) shows that it records the 

 occurrence of 105 phanerogams and eighteen vascular cryptogams, or 123 in all. In 

 addition to this, 277 lower cryptogams are included, making a total flora of exactly 

 400 species. The illustrations consist of eighty beautifully prepared plates, fifty-six 

 of which are of phanerogams. The new species are described with the utmost care, 

 and with an unusual amount of detail ; and the whole work, from beginning to 

 end, is full of special information upon the relationships, systematic position, and 

 geographical distribution of the species treated upon. As I have elsewhere remarked, 

 it is a splendid monument of painstaking exploration and research, and it seems 

 almost^ incredible that the observations and material upon which it is founded should 

 have been collected in less than a month. 



