828 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
very remarkable, for the cup-shaped sori hang down from the fronds in masses, looking 
just like bunches of millet seed. 
Everywhere for the first few hundred feet trees are absent, the wood having been all 
felled. In 1830 a large quantity of dry old sandalwood still remained in the valleys; 
but even then there were no growing sandalwood trees remaining. 1 2 No doubt the 
general appearance of the vegetation is very different now from what it was when the 
island was first visited. In ascending the steep path leading directly from Cumberland 
Bay to Selkirk’s Monument, the first tree was met wfith at about 700 feet altitude, all 
below had been cut down. The way led through a bollow overgrown by a dense growth 
of the gigantic rhubarb-like Gunnera peltata 2 (see PI. XXXIII.). Darwin remarked on 
the large size of the leaves of this plant and height of its stalks as seen by him in 
Chili. 3 The stalks of the plants he saw were not much more than 3 feet in height, 
whilst in this hollow the stalks must have been 7 feet in height. The size attained by 
the Gunnera varies with its situation. A narrow passage was cut in a thicket of them, 
and the huge circular leaves were elevated far above a man’s head. The leaves catch 
and hold a large quantity of rain water ; in many places the leaves are very conspicuous 
on the hillslopes, crowding closely as an undergrowth, and not rising high above the 
ground. 
The Challenger’s visit was in spring, when most excellent strawberries were growing 
wild about the lower slopes of the island, and especially well on banks beneath the cliffs 
close to the seashore. The strawberries are large and fine, but white in colour, being a 
cultivated variety; they have not at all reverted to the parent wild form, either in colour 
or size ; a few only were just beginning to ripen. 
At this time of the year the foliage of the Myrtles, though evergreen, looks half 
dead, and these trees thus show out conspicuously amongst the rest. Here and there 
the Magnoliaceous trees “ Winter’s Bark” ( Drimys confertifolia), common in the Strait 
of Magellan, were covered with showy white flowers, and large patches of a small species 
of Dock ( Rumex ) in full flower showed out red amongst the general green, whilst a white- 
flowered Libertia ( Libertia formosa), growing socially, formed well-marked patches of 
white. A tall Verbenaceous Shrub ( Rhaphitliamnus longiflorus), which was very common, 
was covered with dark blue tubular flowers. 
The common Sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) , the ubiquitous weed, has climbed up the 
pass, and grows by the monument. The endemic Palm ( Juania australis) has been almost 
exterminated, except in almost inaccessible places, as on a rock above the monument, where 
a group of the trees can be seen, but not reached. The terminal shoot, especially when 
1 Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of H.M.S. “Adventure” and “Beagle,” vol. i. p. 302, London, 1839. Visit 
of Capt. King, H.M.S. “Adventure,” accompanied by Signor Bertero, the Botanist, February 1833. 
2 Gunnera bracteata and Gunnera insularis also occur in the island. 
3 C. Darwin, Journal of Researches during the Voyage of H.M.S. “ Beagle,” p. 279, .ed. 1879. 
