8 
BOTANY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 
miles to the X.E. of Kerguelen Island, in 78° E. long. ; the northernmost, Amsterdam 
Island, is nearly on the 38th and St. Paul’s on the 39th parallel of latitude, so they 
both are very little south of the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope. 
I have brought together, in a paper published in the Journal of the Linnsean 
Society (vol. xiv. p. 474), all the little that was then known of the flora of these 
islands, which, like Kerguelen, are volcanic. 
Their scanty vegetation is on the whole more temperate than antarctic, and 
approximates to that of S. Africa in containing such genera as Fhylica, Spartina, 
and Dantlionia. Then’ fern flora is very interesting ; one fern only is common to 
Kerguelen [Lomcu'ia alpina), one {Neplirodium antarcticum) is peculiar, though 
allied to a Mauritian species, and two others {Hlechnum australe and Asp>lenium 
furcatum) are natives of the Cape and other countries ; hut what is most singular 
is, that neither the Folypodium vulgare nov Aspidiuni mohrioides have been found in 
either island, though the former is common to the Cape, ]\Iarion Island, and Ker- 
guelen’s Land, and the latter to the two first of these localities. 
Tristan d’Acunha, in 12° IV. long, and 37° S. lat., and the adjacent islets called 
Nightingale and Inaccessible, all nearly in the latitude of Amsterdam Island and 
the Cape of Good Hope, are the only other islands whose vegetation demands a 
passing notice here.* Their flora is essentially Enegian, with an admixture of Cape 
genera, hut with none of those characteristics of Kerguelen Island. Of Cape types, 
it contains a Pelargonium and an abundance of both the Phylica and Spartina of 
Amsterdam Island, together with species of Oxalis and Hydrocohjle. The Euegian 
and Ealkland Island plants of Tristan d’Acunha and its islets, Avhich have not hitherto 
been found in the islands south and east of them, are howcA'er more numerous than 
arc the Cape genera even, and include Cardamine Ursula, Nertera depressa, Empe- 
trum nigrum, var. ruhrum, Lagenopliora Commersoniana, and Apium australe; and 
it contains besides the strictly American genus Chevreidia. Two land birds, both 
peculiar, are common in the Tristan group, and they possess a water hen, which has 
a representative in Africa and S. America. I am not aware whether land birds 
are found in Amsterdam Island ; if so, they may help to account for the wonderful 
fact of the Tristan d’Acunha Phylica and Spartina being found also in it, though 
separated by 3,000 miles of ocean. 
In conclusion, I have to state that no trace of the mountain flora of S. Africa 
has been found in any of the southern groups of islands. 
* For the latest account of this group see Moseley in Journ. Linn. Soe. XIV., 377. 
