H, M. Ships Erebus and Terror, 523 



tufts of fronds. Beyond the wooded region, some of the 

 same plants, in a dwarf state, mingled with others, compose 

 a shrubby broad belt, which ascends the hill to an elevation 

 of 800 or 900 feet, gradually opening out into grassy slopes, 

 and succeeded by the alpine vegetation. It is especially to- 

 wards the summits of these hills that the most striking 

 plants are found, vying in brightness of colour with the Arc- 

 tic Flora, and unrivalled in beauty by those of any other 

 Antarctic country. Such are the species of Gentian and a 

 veronica with flowers of the intensest blue, several magnifi- 

 cent Composite a Ranunculus ^ a Phyllachne, and a Lili- 

 aceous plant, whose dense spikes of golden flowers, are 

 often so abundant as to attract the eye from a consider- 

 able distance. Here too the vegetable types of other an- 

 tarctic lands may be seen in the greatest number, and even 

 such as are analogous to the arctic productions, none of which 

 can be more decided than a species of Hierochlce, Potentilla, 

 Cardamine, Juncas, Drosera, Kautago, Epilobium, several 

 Grasses, and Mosses belonging to the genera Andrcea, 

 Conostomum, and Bartramia. Many of the plants in the 

 lower grounds are no less striking and beautiful, as an 

 arborescent veronica bearing a profusion of white blossoms, 

 a maritime Gentian, a handsome large flowered Myositis, 

 the magnificent Aralia Polaris (Homb and Jacq.), two fine 

 kinds of Anistome, and several beautiful ferns. 



" Campbell's Island, two degrees to the southward of 

 Lord Auckland's group, is smaller, far more steep and 

 rocky, with narrow sheltered vallies, and the broader faces 

 of the hills much exposed, and hence bare of any but a 

 grassy vegetation. Except in the bays, the coast is as iron- 

 bound as that of St. Helena, the rocks assuming even a 

 wilder and more fantastic form. Ever lashed by heavy 

 swells, and exposed to a succession of westerly gales, this land 

 affords no holding-place for such trees as skirt the beaches 

 of Lord Auckland's Islands. In the narrow, sinuous bays, 



3 Y 



