peculiarly favourable to a vigorous development of the stem and leaves of plants; there being no winter's cold sufficient to destroy even the herbaceous vegetation, a constant accession of new matter ensues in the summer, which only decays with the death of the plant. The elongation of the collum is, under these circumstances, very frequent amongst many truly herbaceous, perennial-rooted plants, whose congeners in other climates are cut off during the winter's frosts, close to the ground, and where the summer season is too dry to admit of much exposure of so large a portion of the root. In the group of islands now under consideration, I have remarked this peculiarity of structure in Ranunculus, Cardamine, Sieversia, Pozoa, both species of Pleurophyllum, Celmisia, Gentiana, and others. In Kerguelen's Land a remarkable instance occurs in the famous Cabbage of that island, a new genus and species of Cruciferæ, to which the generic name of Pringlea was given by its discoverer Mr. Anderson, and which I shall shortly have the opportunity of figuring as P. antiscorbutica. In the southern extreme of America the P. monanthos, D'Urv., assumes this spuriously caulescent form, as well as Statice and many other herbaceous genera, and in the various small oceanic islands the same character prevails. As a natural sequence, it is to be expected that plants generally represented by small suffruticose species, should under these circumstances become frutescent or arborescent, of which we have many instances. Veronicæ, Compositæ, Araliaceæ, Myrtaceæ, Rubiaceæ, Campanulaceæ, Lobeliaceæ, and Ferns, are all more fully developed in the Pacific islands in proportion to the number of smaller species, and to the mass of the vegetation, than they are in other climates.
Plate XLII. Fig. 1, flower and bractea; fig. 2, corolla; fig. 3, the same cut open; fig. 4, anther and upper part of filament; fig. 5, ovarium; fig. 6, young capsule; fig. 7, transverse section of the same; fig. 8, immature seeds on the column; fig. 9, capsule surrounded by remains of corolla, calyx and bractea; fig. 10, hair from the bases of the leaves:—all magnified.
2. Plaxtago (Arnoglossum, Endl.) carnosa, Br.; acaulis, collo crassissimo, foliis plurimis confertis stellatim patentibus crassis carnosis spathulatis lanceolatisve obtusis inciso-dentatis seu runcinatis glaberrimis aut rarius pilosis basi nudis, scapis plurimis foliis æquilongis, floribus capitatis, capitulis compressis 1—4-floris, bracteis foliolisque calycinis acutis, capsula calyce inclusa rotundata 4—8-sperma. (Tab. XLIII.) — P. carnosa, Br. Prodr. p. 425 (non Lam.). P. triantha, Spreng. Syst. Veg. vol. i. p. 439.
Var. β. foliis glaberrimis majoribus.
Var. γ. pumila, foliis plus minusve hispido-pilosis.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group; on rocks near the sea, generally immediately above high-water mark, all the states; abundant.
Planta maritima, depressa, succulenta, rupibus tenaciter affixa. Radix perennis, breviter fusiformis, copiosissime fibrosa; fibris aterrimis, plerisque tenuibus, fastigiatis, aliis validis, crassis, subsucculentis. Collum crassissimum, breve, nigrum, simplex v. rarius biceps, nudum, fibrosum, non raro surculos emittens. Folia petiolata, ½—3 unc. longa, horizontaliter stellatim patentia, conferta, numerosissima, singula planta 40-60, succulenta, lanceolata, spathulata, v. lineari-spathulata, obtusa, basi attenuata, margine varie secta, sinuato-dentata, incisodentata v. sæpius runcinata, rarius utrinque uni-bidentata v. omnino integra; supra luride virescentia, opaca, medio sulcata, avenia; subtus pallidiora, costa medio prominula, nervisque 2 per totam longitudinem percursa; glaberrima v. in var. β. pilis patentibus v. appressis, sparsis, rigidis, albis subhispida; intima breviora, dense compacta, rosulata, obovata, margine sinuata. Scapi valde numerosi, 15-20, horizontaliter pateutes, apicibus ascendentibus, ex axillis foliorum orti, longitudine foliorum v. iis breviores, interdum brevissimi, glabri v. plerumque pilosi, pilis patentibus ut in foliis. Spica ad capitulam late ovatam, superne truncatam redacta, valde compressa, ¼ unc. lata, latior quam longa, pauci-2—4-flora. Bracteæ majusculæ, ovatæ, cymbiformes, subacute v. acuminata;, carnosæ, marginibus membranaceis, basin calycis fere cingentes. Calyx tetraphyllus, foliolis late
