90 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



other Compositae, a Geum, the small cespitose Nassauvia, a sericeous 

 Ancistrum, a hairy Gerastiwn, and a diminutive white-flowered Ourisia: 

 while here and there, boldly projecting nearly a foot above the carpet- 

 like surface of the sod, the beds of large Nassauvia seemed to derive 

 protection from the enveloping of the blanket-like leaves : the termi- 

 nal rocks being coated with incrusting Lichens, and the tufts of Us7iea 

 melaxantha ?. The gen. Gulcitium-Uke, found by Mr. Brackenridge, 

 will complete the List of all the plants we met with that seemed 

 peculiar to mountain-summits. 



There was, however, on pointed rocky summits of inferior elevation, 

 a tendency to the re-appearance of this vegetable growth ; one of the 

 Saxifragas occurring on an exposed summit only tive hundred feet 

 above the sea. 



Here, and lower down, Emhotlirium coccineum, a low straggling 

 shrub, a counterpart to our Northern Rhododendrums, made its ap- 

 pearance, growing only on the tops of stony hills, where, from the 

 preponderance of rocky fragments, the soil was a little less moist than 

 usual. 



The Forest. Trees grew only in the vicinity of the coast ; occu- 

 pying in a real forest the steep acclivities, and the sides and bottom 

 of ravines containing running water. In the distance, the forest pre- 

 sented a decided Brazilian outline, in the over-arching dome-like tree- 

 tops : but on landing, the average height proved only about thirty 

 feet, with the trunks of the trees rarely more than eight inches in 

 diameter. The trees consisted almost exclusively of Nov. gen. ? betu- 

 hides; resembling a birch in its conspicuously white trunk and 

 branches, and in its leaves, except that they are evergreen ; while 

 throughout the forest, the hazel-leaved \>Qec\\, Fag us Antarctica, proved 

 comparatively rare, intermingled singly and at intervals. Above the 

 elevation of about four hundred feet, the forest ceased, the trees be- 

 coming depressed and dwarfed to shrubs; as indeed wherever growing 

 singly in the open country ; the spongy turf producing on them the 

 same unfavorable result as barren soil, being on the contrary too reten- 

 tive of moisture. The Fuegian Magnolia, Drymis Winteri, attained 

 larger dimensions than the other two forest-trees, but was quite rare, 

 and occurred only singly : the loftiest met with, measuring fifty feet 

 high with the trunk two feet in diameter, was growing on the South 

 side of Burnt Island, and may prove the very last large tree in pro- 

 ceeding towards the Southern Pole. 



