BOTANY
OF
THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE.
FLORA ANTARCTICA.
I.LORD AUCKLAND'S GROUP AND CAMPBELL'S ISLAND.
Under this head will be considered the Botany of the few small islands which lie to the south of New Zealand, at least so far as have hitherto been examined. Of these, the two most important, Lord Auckland's group, in 50½° S. lat., 166° E. long., and Campbell's Island, lat. 52½° S. and long. 169° E., were visited by the "Erebus and Terror," and the former also by the French and American Discovery Ships.[1]
Upon McQuarrie's Island, lat. 55° S., long. 159° E., a very few plants have been collected, which are deposited in the herbarium of Mr. Brown, and some in that of Sir William Hooker, at Kew. I am not aware that any account has been published of these islands, nor of Emerald Island (lat. 57° S., long. 163° E.), the botany of which is entirely unknown, but which probably in this meridian constitutes the southern extreme of terrestrial vegetation. Floating masses of Macrocystis and D'Urvillæa are found, however, living and growing on the limits of the pack-ice, as far as the parallel of 64° S.
The Flora of these islands is closely related to that of New Zealand, and does not partake in any of those features which characterize Australian vegetation. Most of the plants may indeed be presumed to exist on the unexplored mountains, especially those of the middle and southern islands, of New Zealand; but others are doubtless peculiar to those higher southern latitudes which they inhabit, thus being analogous to
- ↑ A few of the plants collected by the French have been published by two of the officers of Admiral D'Urville's Expedition, under the title of 'Voyage au Pôle Sud, Botanique.'
