et obscure dentatis, petiolis margine incanis basi connatis subvaginantibus, pedunculis sessilibus solitariis axillaribus, floribus erectis, petalis rubris subpurpureisve ad medium bifidis, ovario glaberrimo, stylo oblique clavato, capsula lineari elongata glaberrima.—Hook. fil. in Icon. Plant, t. 685.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; on grassy banks and in moist places, abundant.
This little plant in every respect occupies the place in these islands, that the E. alpinum, L., does on the European mountains. The two species are indeed so very closely allied, that I look in vain for further constant characters than the creeping and rooting much-branched stem, the densely crowded, broader, and more obovate leaves with almost sheathing petioles, and the deeply bifid petals of the present one. The more remarkable points of similarity, besides the general appearance, are the lines of pubescence on the stem, the sessile or shortly pedunculated ovaria (which in E. alpinum are however often lengthened), the deep colour of the petals, and the simple clavate stigma, which is here decidedly oblique and gibbous at the base. A very similar species is found on the Andes of Peru and in Chili.
3. Epilobium nerterioides, A. Cunn.; glaberrimum, caule repente radicante, foliis oppositis breviter petiolatis ellipticis rotundatisve subcoriaceis et carnosis marginibus integris recurvis, fructibus glaberrimis pedunculatis inclinatis pendulisve.—E. nerterioides, A. Cunn. Prodr. Flor. Nov. Zeal, in Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. iii. p. 32.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group; in moist rocky places, alt. 1200 feet, rare, not found in flower or fruit.
In these very imperfect specimens the leaves are much more fleshy, and their margins more strongly recurved, than in others gathered by Mr. Menzies in Dusky Bay, or by myself in the Bay of Islands. Like other species however of the same genus, the plant is probably a very variable one. Mr. Cunningham quotes the E. pendulum, Sol., as a synonym of E. nummularifolium, R. Cunn., a species very nearly allied to the present, but larger, with distinctly crenate leaves, and having the capsules hoary with a white down. In habit and foliage this plant resembles the Anagallis tenella, L., and as well as many of the New Zealand species, it has a peculiarly creeping mode of growth, which none of those of the northern hemisphere possess.
VIII. HALORAGEÆ, Br.
1. Callitriche verna, L. DeC. Prodr. vol. iii. p. 70. D'Urv. Fl. Ins. Mal. in Mem. Soc. Linn. Par. vol. iv. p. 620. Gaud, in Freyc. Voy. Bot. p. 138.
Var. β. terrestris; caulibus brevissimis repentibus, foliis approximatis carnosis.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; common on the ground and on wet rocks near the sea. β. On the ground by the margins of pools, Campbell's Island.
A very general plant throughout the Antarctic Islands visited by the "Erebus and Terror." First noticed as a native of the Falkland Islands by Admiral D'Urville, who, in his description of the plant, which is not uncommon there, and is identical with the var. β. of Campbell's Island, alludes to the filament and ovarium as each arising from a minute bipartite calyx. Neither in my dried specimens, nor when in a fresh state, could I detect organs answering to this description. The bracteas, which are extremely caducous, and only exist in the very youngest state of the flower, are singularly falcate, linear-subulate and membranaceous, similar to those of C. platycarpa, Kützing. The leaves vary much in shape, and the whole plant in size, as in Europe. The anthers,
