[1] 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 these southern islands.
In the central parts of the Chonos Archipelago (lat. 45 degs.), the
forest has very much the same character with that along the whole west
coast, for 600 miles southward to Cape Horn. The arborescent grass of
Chiloe is not found here; while the beech of Tierra del Fuego grows to
a good size, and forms a considerable proportion of the wood; not,
however, in the same exclusive manner as it does farther southward.
Cryptogamic plants here find a most congenial climate. In the Strait
of Magellan, as I have before remarked, 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. [2] 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 flat
land supports the most luxuriant forests. Here, within the Chonos
Archipelago, the nature of the climate more closely approaches that of
Tierra del Fuego than that of northern Chiloe; for every patch of level
ground is covered by two species of plants (Astelia pumila and Donatia
magellanica), which by their joint decay compose a thick bed of elastic
peat.
In Tierra del Fuego, above the region of woodland, the 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 downwards in
the peat, the leaves, yet holding their place, can be observed passing
through every stage of decomposition, till the whole becomes blended in
one confused mass. The Astelia is assisted by a few other
plants,--here and there a small creeping Myrtus (M. nummularia), with a
woody stem like our cranberry and with a sweet berry,--an Empetrum (E.
rubrum), like our heath,--a rush (Juncus grandiflorus), are nearly the
only ones that grow on the swampy surface. These plants, though
possessing a very close general resemblance to the English species of
the same genera, are different. In the more level parts of the
country, the surface of the peat is broken up into little pools of
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