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Show 348 CHONOS AllCilll'ELAGO. Jan. 1835. from the ground to the tip of the upper leaf, not less than four feet. So very close is the general resemblance with the cultivated species, that it is necessary to show that they have not been imported. The simple fact of their growth on the islands, and even small rocks, throughout the Chonos Archipelago, which has never been inhabited, and very seldom visited, is an argument of some weight. But the circumstance of the wildest Indian tribes being well acquainted with the plant, is stronger. Mr. Lowe, a very intelligent and active sealer, informs me, that on showing some potatoes to the naked savages in the Gulf of Trinidad (lat. 50°), they immediately recognised them, and callin(J' the m "Aq um. a," wante d to tak e them away. The savageos also pointed to a place where they grew; which fact was subsequently verified. The Indians of Chiloe, belonging to another tribe, also give them a name in their own language. 'rhe simple fact of their being known and named by distinct races, over a space of four or five hundred miles on a most unfrequented and scarcely known coast, almost proves their native existence. Professor Henslow, who has examined the dried specimens which I brought home, says that they are the same with those described by Mr. Sabine* from Valparaiso, but that they form a variety which by some botanists has been considered as specifically distinct. It is remarkable that the same plant should be found on the sterile mountains of central Chile, where a drop of rain does not fall for more than six months, and within the damp forests of the southern islands. From what we know of the habits of the potato, this latter situation would appear more congenial than the former, as its birthplace. !n the central parts of the Chonos Archipelago, in lat. 45 30', the forest has assumed very much the same charac- • Horticultural Transact., vol. v., p. 249. Mr. Caldcleugh sent home two tubers, which being well manured, even the first season produced numerous potatoes and an abundance of leaves. Jan. 1835. FORMATION OF PEAT. 349 ter which is found along the whole west coast for 600 miles to Cape Horn. The arborescent grass of Chiloe has here ceased to exist ; while the beech of Tierra del Fuego both grows to a good size, and forms a considerable proportion of the wood; not, however, in the same exclusive manner as it does further to the southward. Cryptogamic plants here find a most congenial climate. In the neighbourhood of the Strait of Magellan, I haYe before remarked that the country appears too cold and wet to allow of their arriving at perfection ; but in these islands, within the forest, the number of species, and great abundance of mosses, lichens, and small ferns, is quite extraordinary.* In Tierra del Fuego trees grow only on the hill-sides; every level piece of land being invariably covered by a thick bed of peat; but in Chiloe the same kind of situation supports the most luxuriant forest. Here, within the Chonos Archipelago, the nature of the climate more closely approaches that of the southern, than that of the northern, of these two countries. Nearly every patch of level ground is covered by two species of plants ( Astelia pumila of Brown, t and Dcnatia mageLlanica), which by their joint decay compose a thick bed of elastic peat. In Tierra del Fue!J'O above the region of woodland, the 0 ' former of these eminently sociable plants is the chief agent in the production of peat. Fresh leaves are always succeeding one to the other, round the central tap root; the lower ones soon decay ; and in tracing a root downward in the peat, the leaves (yet holding their position) can be observed passing through every stage of decomposition, till t~e whole becomes blended in one confused mass. The Asteha is assisted by· few other plants; here and there a sm~ creeping one (.i.lf!Jrtus nummularia), with a woody stem like our "" By sweeping with my insect-net, I procured from these si~u.ations a considerable number of minute insects of the family of Staphyhmdre, and others a11ied to Pselaphus, and minute Hymenoptera. But the most characteristic family in number of both individuals and species, throughout the more open parts of Chiloe and Chonos, is that of the Telephoridre. t Antlzericum ttifarium of Sola,nder. |