containing a very minute embryo, whose precise form and direction I have not been able to trace, and the endocarp is often loose within the sarcocarp, externally covered with bullate opaque glands, which are sometimes seen under the cuticle of the anther and in other parts of the plant. In the shrubby habit, articulated stems, and in the opposite glabrous leaves, Ascarina differs very conspicuously from Gunnera.
Batiscea is another order with which Gunnera coincides in many important points, as in the often tetramerous structure of the flowers, their unisexual nature, the absence of a corolla, the form of the stamens, which are in Batisca attached to the laciniae of the calyx, while these laciniaj, in Gunnera, appear like adnate bracteas, in the absence even of rudiments of an ovarium in the male flower, especially in there being two styles to each carpel, in the albuminous seed and erect embryo, which is of a different shape and form from that of Gunnera, though similar to that of Haloragea proper. On the other hand, Batisca differs from this in many respects, most remarkably in the many ovuled parietal placenta?, in the form of the pollen, in the composition of the carpels and their dehiscence, and in the form of the seed and testa, which approaches to that of some Saxifragea.
In its native state, Gunnera scabra must be a very noble plant, its foliage being amongst the largest of Dicotyledonous vegetables. Mr. Darwin[1] mentions having measured single leaves eight feet in diameter, or no less than twenty-four feet in circumference. The stalks are more than a yard high and each bears four or five of these enormous leaves. I have no specimens from this locality, but introduce the plant on the authority of Mr. Darwin's Journal, where it is stated that "the 'Panke' inhabits sand-stone cliffs, and somewhat resembles Rhubarb on a gigantic scale. The inhabitants cut the stalks, which are subacid, tan leather from the roots, and procure a black dye from it."
2. Gunnera (Misandra) Magellanica, Lamk. Diet. vol. iii. p. 61. t. 801. f. 2. G. Falklandica, Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 489. Misandra Magellanica, Commerson in Jussieu Gen. 405. Gaud, in Ann. Sc. Nat. vol. v. p. 89. Freyc. Yoy. Sot. p. 502. IfUrville in Mem. Soc. Linn. Paris, vol. iv. p. 621. Dysernone integrifoba, Banks et Sol. MSS. in Mus. Banks cum icone. "Mauve/' Pernefty Voy. vol. ii. p. 58.
Hab. South Chili, Fuegia and the Falkland Islands, very abundant ; Commerson, Banks and Solander, Capt. King, and all subsequent voyagers.
I find in Fuegia the same variety, or rather s*ate of this plant, which is called Falklandica in the 'Icones Plantarum,' and I have introduced that name as a synonyme. The Misandra have been separated from the true Gunnera by then' dioecious flowers being destitute of a corolla, to which might be added their humble mode of growth, and male flowers consisting of a solitary stamen bracteolated at the base and collected into a dense panicle or arranged in a spike. The characters drawn from the inflorescence, are not however decisive; one New Zealand species, Gunnera monoica, Raoul, is monoecious, and a second, G.prorepem, mihi, has petals. Generally speaking, Misandra is the more southern representative of Gunnera proper. Thus, whilst Java has G. macrophylla, Blume, Tasmania possesses Milligania; Otaheite G. petaloidea, Gaud., while New Zealand (whose flora partakes of that of the Pacific Islands), has three species of Misandra ; and lastly, Peru, Chili, and Juan Fernandez, have G. Chi/eusis and G. bracteata, and Fuegia, M. Magellanica and M. lobata.
G. Magellanica is one of the most abundant of Antarctic American plants, from Valdivia to Cape Horn, and especially in the Falkland Islands, where it is eaten by cattle. On the mountains near Cape Horn it ascends to 1,000 feet. Apparently the same species, without flower, has been collected by Professor Jameson on the Andes of Quito.
3. Gunneka (Misandra) lobata, Hook, fib; dioica, canle repente radicante, petiobs rufo-pilosis, fobis rotundatis profuiide 5-7 lobis coriaceis nervis subtus pilosis lobis rotundatis obtusis integerrimis marginibus
- ↑ Journal, ed. i. p. 340.
