302
HERMITE ISLAND.
[Chap. X.
1842
Rio de Janeiro, its fervid sun and glowing vegetation. Anson, again, with his reduced company, palsied by scurvy and other diseases, could have little dreamt of the snug harbours and abundance of antiscorbutic diet, which here offered both shelter to his shattered vessels, and the means of recruiting the health of his crew. The naturalist who first visited the Fuegian shores felt probably only disappointment when recognising the familiar genera and representative species of his European home: he would naturally infer, with a corresponding diminution of interest, that analogous latitudes produce an analogous vegetation in opposite hemispheres. Experience has proved the fallacy of such a conclusion; and accordingly the Flora of Fuegia claims an additional and peculiar charm, in its being the only region south of the tropics where the botany of our temperate zone is, as it were, repeated to a very considerable extent."
