Rather a scarce plant and perfectly distinct from the following, with which it has been strangely confounded, partly because Gaertner inadvertently applied the name of A. tricuspidata to his figure of Banks' A. trifurcata, and partly owing to the confusion in which the whole group to which it belongs has long been involved, and the reference of many different umbelliferous plants with a tufted habit and simple umbels, by Lamarck, to the Bolax glebaria of Commerson.
4. Azorella h/copodioides, Gaud. ; csespitosa, caulibus ramosis dense fasciculatis, foliis arete imbricatis erectiuseulis profunde trifidis laciniis subulatis pungentibus petiolis concavis latis basi vaginantibus amplexicaulibus marginibus argute ciliato-serratis, umbellis 3— 4-floris fructiferis pedunculatis, pedunculo valido, involucri foliolis 2 late ovatis cymbiformibus argute et profunde inciso-serratis, pedicelhs brevissimis, calycis limbo 5-dentato, fructu globoso, carpelHs lsevibus dorso convexis ecostatis. A. lycopodioides, Gaudichaud in Ann. Sc. Nat. vol. v. p. 105. t. 3. f. 1. et in Freyc. Foy. Bot. p. 136. B? Urville in Mem. Soc. Linn. Paris, vol. iv. p. 614. DC. Prodr. vol. iv. p. 77. Chaniitis tricuspidata, Banks et Sol. MSS. in Mus. Banks, cum icone (non Gaertner).
Hab. Tierra del Fuego ; Port Famine, Ca.pt. King; Good Success Bay, Banks and Solander; Hermite Island, J. B. II.; Falkland Islands, abundant, Gaudichaud, D'Urville, fyc.
Found at all elevations, both in Fuegia and in the Falkland Islands, and so much resembling Coloban tints subulatus, that the two plants have often been taken for each other and for the Mniarum fascicidatum, Forst., a New Holland and New Zealand plant, which is hence erroneously described as being also a native of the Strait of Magalhaens. The fruit of this species certainly differs from that of the two former, and they, again, from the carpels of A. ecespitosa and the following ; I have, however, brought them all under one genus, feeling assured that the details of the form of the mericarps do not afford the important characters in this group that they do in some other UmbellifertB.
5. Azorella Selago, Hook.nl.; dense csespitosa, caulibus fastigiatis seepe elongatis ramosis compactis, foliis dense et arete imbricatis appressis petiolo cymbiformi late vaginante amplexicauli lamina dilatata coriacea concava 3-7-fida intus longe setoso-cihata segmentis oblongis subacutis integenirnis, umbella 3-flora breviter pedunculata, involucri fobobs bnearibus subacutis, dentibus calycinis acutis, fructu ovato stybs elongatis terminato, mericarpiis dorso paulo convexo compressis 5-jugis ad suturam contractis. (Tab. XCIX.) Cookia, Anderson's MSS. in Bill. Banks.
Hab. Tierra del Fuego, south part, C. Darwin, Esq. Port Famine, Capt. King. Hermite Island, towards the top of the mountains, ./. D. H. Kerguelen's Land, covering the ground near the sea, Anderson, J. D. II.
Caules longitudine varii, 1-5 uuc. longi, plerumque crassitie penna? olorina?, foliis imbricatis dense tecti. Foliorum petioli suberosi ; lamina plerumque latior quam longa, concava, intus setis elongatis sparsis aucta, segmentis 1-nerviis. Flores pallide rosei.
The fruit of this plant is so dorsally compressed and contracted at the sutures, as almost to justify its being removed from this genus and even group. The calycine teeth and the styles are rather longer than is usual in Azorella ; still, as mentioned above, the fruits of almost all the species that I have examined differ so widely from one another, that to separate this or either of the former would involve the complete dismemberment of a genus, of which all the species, except the following, are very closely allied.
Azorella Selago is the most abundant plant in Kerguelen's Land, covering the rocky ground close to the sea with brown masses many feet in extent, and often so soft that the traveller plunges into or through them up to the middle. Like the curious Bolax glebaria of the Falkland Islands, the living part of the plant forms a crust over a
