THE PLANTS OF THE ANTARCTIC REGION'S. 
137 
sea-beach, many Ferns abound ; conspicuous 
among them is a species with caulescent or 
sub-arborescent stems half a foot and upwards 
in diameter, crowned with handsome spreading 
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 towards the summits of these 
hills that the most striking plants are found, 
vying in brightness of colour with the Arctic 
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 iutensest blue, several magnificent Com- 
posites, a Ranunculus, a Phyllachne, and a 
Liliaceous plant whose dense spikes of golden 
flowers are often so abundant as to attract the 
eye from a considerable distance. Here too 
the vegetable types of other Antarctic lands 
may be seen in the greatest number, and even 
such as are analogous to the Arctic produc- 
tions, none of which can be more decided than 
a species of Uierochloe, Potentilla, Carda- 
mine, Juncus, Drosera, Plantago, 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 arbores- 
cent Veronica bearing a profusion of white 
blossoms, a maritime Gentian, a handsome 
large-flowered Myosotis, the magnificent Ara- 
lia polaris (Hombr. and Jacq.), two fine kinds 
of Anisotome, 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 shel- 
tered valleys, 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, how- 
ever, the scene is quite changed, for they are 
often margined by a slender belt of brushwood, 
with an abundant undergrowth of Ferns, 
stretching up the steep and confined gulleys. 
'• The geological features of the two islands 
are alike, and the only difference in climate 
consists in that of Campbell's Island being 
still more forbidding and dreary. Fogs, snow- 
squalls, and mists, are the prevailing meteoro- 
logical phenomena of these regions, and though 
such a state of atmosphere has a tendency to 
check the general mass of vegetation, still the 
constant moisture and equable temperature 
thus afforded support a luxuriant herbage in 
the very sheltered valleys. In Campbell's 
Island, the mountains, which rise very abruptly 
to about 1 300 feet, are almost bare of vegeta- 
tion, their rocky sides presenting a larger pro- 
portion of Grasses, 3/osses, and Lichens, than 
in Lord Auckland's group. Though all the 
handsomer plants are also found in the larger 
of the latter islands, yet, by growing here at 
a much lower elevation and in far greater 
abundance, they form a more striking feature 
in the landscape, the golden-flowered Lilia- 
ceous plant being conspicuous, from its pro- 
fusion, at the distance of a mile from the 
shore."— Pp. 2, 3. 
The first part contains detailed descriptions 
of twenty-six species, and several varieties 
found in the Auckland and Campbell Islands. 
Among these is Ranunculus pinrjitu, a dwarf 
Ranunculus pinguis (half size.) 
species of Crowsfoot, which would no doubt 
form a handsome small hardy herbaceous plant: 
it is a stemless perennial plant, with roundish 
indented leaves, all of which spring from the 
root ; the flowers are yellow, about an inch 
across, one, or sometimes two, rarely more, on 
a stalk. After the flowers are past, the nume- 
rous carpels grow into a globose capitolum, or 
head, which is about the size of a common 
nut ; eacli of the ovaria is terminated by a 
small bluntish honk, which gives the whole 
the appearance of being a head of small hooks. 
A variety of the English Cardaminc hirsuta, 
called siibcarnosa, having very fleshy leaves, 
was found in Campbell's Island, and was 
abundantly gathered, and used as salad by the 
officers of the ships, its leaves being an excel- 
lent antiscorbutic. Metrosideros lucida is the 
largest tree on Lord Auckland's group, and 
the most abundant, skirting the whole line of 
