BOTANY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND.— DR. HOOKER. 
3 
any liighcr one, except such as lie within the Antarctic Circle itself ; for no land 
even Avithin the N. Polar area presents so impoverish (‘d a vegetation. 
The chief interest attached to the flora of these archipelagos lies in the indication 
it affords of their being, in all prohahility, the remains of a much larger land area, 
Avhich, though peopled with plants mainly from the southern extreme of S. America, 
4,000 miles to the westward, possessed an endemic flora of its OAvn, which included 
forest trees of considerahle dimensions. Before, hoAA’Cvcr, proceeding to discuss the 
relationships of their floras, I shall describe that of the largest and the only one that 
is at all well known. 
As pointed out in the “ Flora Antarctica,” the prcA'alent features of the vegetation 
of this island as then known AA^ere Fuegian ; one species of floAvering plant alone, of 
those that are not peculiar to the island, being characteristic of any other flora, 
namely, the Cohda plmnosa, AAduch is found elscAvlicre only in the Auckland and 
Campbell Islands, south of Ncav Zealand. More recent collections have con- 
firmed and even strengthened this Fuegian affinity, for of the three additional 
flowering plants procured by subsequent explorers, one is Fuegian {llanunculus 
trnlUfoUus), another {R. Moseletji) is closely allied to a Fuegian species, and the 
third one, JJminia compacta, is a native of the mountains of Ncav Zealand and 
Tasmania, and this is so nearly allied to a Fuegian species that it may prove to he a 
form of a plant common to all high southern latitudes. 
Not only has a further knoAvledge of the Kerguelen Island flora strengthened its 
known affinities with the Fuegian, but recent discoveries in the latter flora have done 
so too ; some of the Kerguelen’s grasses especially proA'ing to he more closely allied 
to Fuegian species than was suspected. The discovery of the flowers of the endemic 
Kerguelen genus Lycdlia is another instance of this affinity. In the Flora Antarctica, 
judging from the fruit alone, the flowers Ijcing unkuoAvn, this remarkable plant Avas 
provisionally placed in Porhdacece, its resemblance in habit and foliage to the 
andine genus Rycnopliyllum being indicated. Complete specimens collected by 
Moseley prove its close relationship to the latter genus, in juxta-position with 
which it had indeed been placed in the Genera Plantarum, where both had been 
referred correctly to CaryopliyllecB. 
The elements of the Phsenogamic flora of Kerguelen Island may be thus 
classified : — 
1 Endemic genus, which has no near ally — Rrinylea aniiscorbutica. 
1 Endemic genus allied to an Andean one — Lyallia kerguelensis. 
6 Endemic species allied to American congeners — Ranuncidus crassipes and 
3Ioseleyi, Colobcmtlms kerguelensis, Accena ajjinis, Poa Cookii, Festnea 
kerguelensis. 
5 species common to Fuegia hut not found elscAvliere : Ramincidus tridlifoUns, 
Azorella Selago, Galium antarcticum, Festuca erecta, Deschampsia ant- 
arctica. 
A 2 
V. 
