Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/27

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Campbell's Islands]
FLORA ANTARCTICA.
5

southern hemisphere, but very rare in those of the northern; the R. parviflorus being perhaps the only British one in which it is inserted at a considerable distance from their base. The foliage of this plant is sufficiently accurately described by DeCandolle from Sir Joseph Banks's New Zealand specimens, but the corolla requires some correction, and the fruit was unknown to that author. The calyx consists of from 3–5 membranous, very concave, deciduous sepals. Petals narrow, variable in number, about twice as long as the sepals, bright yellow, 1½ line long, spreading and horizontal in the expanded flower during the day, 3-nerved; nectary conspicuous, sunk, and covered with a closely appressed scale, forming together a deep fovea, opening upwards, placed on the middle of the petal and resembling the fructification of some Davallia. Filaments short, linear-subulate. Anthers broadly oblong. Ovaries about 15, some abortive, gibbous at the base, with a curved falcate style. Carpels forming globose heads, few in number, 5–8 or 10, rather large, compressed, especially towards the axis of the receptacle; the style straight or curved, very short or longer and subulate.

Plate II. Fig. 1, bud; fig. 2, flower; fig. 3, sepal; fig. 4, petals; fig. 5, stamen; fig. 6, ovarium; fig. 7, head of carpels; fig. 8, carpel removed; fig. 9, vertical section of the same; fig. 10, lateral; and fig. 11, front view of seed:—all more or less magnified.


3. Ranunculus (Hecatonia) subscaposus, Hook. fil.; totus pilis subrigidis appressis fulvis hispido-pubescens, foliis plerisque radicalibus longissime petiolatis deltoideo-cordatis profunde tripartitis lobis late cuneatis inaequaliter 3–7-fidis segmentis acutis, scapis folio brevioribus unifloris 1–3-phyllis superne incrassatis et dense pilosis, petalis 5 calyce brevioribus obovato-oblongis infra medium squamuloso-neetariferis.—Hook. Ic. Plant. vol. viii. ined.

Hab. Campbell's Island; by the margins of rivulets in the woods, D. Lyall, Esq.

This plant I never saw growing; it was detected by my friend Mr. Lyall. In general appearance it very closely resembles the R. lappaceus, Sm., of Tasmania and the northern parts of New Zealand, a species which varies much in size, in the form of the leaves, and in the nature of the pubescence. The R. subscaposus is more slender in habit, with the hairs always closely appressed and of a tawny yellow colour; but the most important distinction lies in the form and size of the petals, which in R. lappaceus are much larger than the calyx and very broadly obovato-cuneate, with a large triangular fleshy nectary at the very base; but in this plant they are smaller, of a very different shape, and the nectary consists of a minute flat round scale placed a little below the middle. The petioles are nearly a span long; the leaves about an inch in length and somewhat more in width.


II.CRUCIFERÆ, Juss.

1. Cardamine hirsuta, L.; var. subcarnosa; glabra, floribus majusculis, petalis albidis purpureisve, stylis brevibus latis, stigmatibus subsessilibus.

Hab. Campbell's Island; very common on grassy banks from the sea to an altitude of 500 feet.

Abundantly gathered and used as a salad by the officers of the ships, its succulent leaves being an excellent antiscorbutic. A very dwarf hairy state of this is common among the rocks close to the sea, having the flowers always purple. Except in the very fleshy leaves, and, occasionally, coloured petals, this is in no way to be distinguished from the ordinary states of C. hirsuta, and especially from Cape Horn and Falkland Island specimens, in which the style and stigmata are variable both in length and breadth; in the large size of the petals it agrees with Icelandic and other hyperborean specimens. My friend Mr. H. C. Watson agrees with me in considering that no specific difference exists between this plant and our English C. hirsuta, though they grow nearly at the antipodes of each other. Of the stigmas in the European form, he observes, "they are broader