Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/296

262 vegetation consisting chiefly of such natives of the rainy and storm-vexed mountains of Fuegia, and of the arid coast and plains of Patagonia, as can endure those sudden vicissitudes from heat to cold, and from damp to dry, which the climate of the Falklands presents. The position of the islands in question, about equally approximated to both the above-named countries, might naturally seem favourable to their receiving a like share of the vegetation of each. Grasses and the balsam-bog (Bolax glebaria) form the chief, and indeed the only conspicuous botanical feature in the landscape. During the whole year they cover the hills, the peatbogs, the plains, the coasts, and outlying islets. In the latter situation, the Tussock chiefly thrives in its greatest luxuriance, appearing like a forest of miniature palms; and this being the most important among the Falkland Island plants, it deserves to be noticed first. The similarity between the Tussock-grass and a small palm-tree is due to the curious mode of growth of the former. Each plant forms a hillock of matted roots, rising straight out of the ground, and a few feet or more apart from the roots of the surrounding Tussock plants. The hillocks are often six feet high, and four or five in diameter, and they throw out from the summit the copious grassy foliage, with blades full six feet in length, drooping on all sides, those of opposite plants meeting, so as to over-arch the spaces between. Thus a Tussock-bog (for so a tract of land covered with this grass is called)