Observations on the botany of Kerguelen Island

Abstract

The history of the botany of Kerguelen Island (also called Kerguelen’s Land, and Desolation Island), previous to the visit of the Rev. Mr. Eaton, the last and most complete explorer of its flora, is a very brief one. It commences with the visit of Capt. Cook during his third voyage, in the narrative of which the vegetation of the island is thus described by Mr. Anderson, the surgeon of the “Resolution :” “Perhaps no “place hitherto discovered in either hemisphere, under the same parallel of latitude, “affords so scanty a field for the naturalist as this barren spot. The verdure which “appears, when at a little distance from the shore, would flatter one with the expec-“ tation of meeting with some herbage ; but in this we were much deceived. For “ on landing we discovered that this lively colour was occasioned only by one small “ plant, not much unlike some sorts of Saxifrage , which grows in large spreading “ tufts, to a considerable way up the hills. ” Mr. Anderson proceeds then to give some particulars of this plant ( Azorella Selago , Hk. f.), of the cabbage ( Pringlea antiscorbutica , Br.), of two small plants found in boggy places, which were eaten as salad, one “almost like garden cress and very fiery ” (probably Ranunculus crassipes Hk. f.), the other very mild and “having not only male and female, but what bota-“ nists call androynous plants” (? Callitriche). He adds to these a coarse grass ( Poa Cookii , Hk. f.), and a smaller sort which is rarer (probably Deschampsia antarctica , Hk .); a sort of goose-grass (? Cotula plumosa , Hk. f.), and another small plant much like it (this I do not recognise). “ In short,” he says, “ the whole “ catalogue of plants does not exceed 16 or 18, including some sorts of moss and a “ beautiful Lichen ” ( Neuropogon Taylori , Hk. f.) “which grows higher upon the “ rocks than the rest of the vegetable productions. Nor is there the least appear-“ ance of a shrub in the whole country.” The date of Cook’s visit was the summer of 1776, and the specimens obtained by Mr. Anderson were deposited in Sir Joseph Banks’ Herbarium, which subsequently became the property of the nation, and is preserved in the British Museum. Not having been poisoned, all the Kerguelen Island plants were, when I examined them in 1843, much injured by insects, and many were entirely destroyed.