Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/298

264 of the southern hemisphere, or the Andes of South America.

"Neither of the two remarkable species of beech, nor the Winter's bark, the Fuchsia, currant, or barberries, which inhabit Fuegia, are seen in the Falklands. The Veronica elliptica (V. decussata of our gardens) is the only large shrub of the islands, and it is confined to a few bays on the southern and western coasts. A white-flowered Aster-like plant, about four feet high, constitutes the most common shrub of the country; while the little Empetrum rubrum, a species of crowberry, producing a berry very similar to that of its northern congener, and further useful from the facility with which it ignites, even when sodden with rain, covers extensive tracts like heather. A small myrtle, bearing however no resemblance to its classic congener of Italy, creeps over the ground, and produces a sweet and pleasant berry; and a Rubus or bramble, analogous to our R. arcticus and R. saxatilis, but of humbler growth, nestles among the Empetrum, and affords a fruit equal in size and flavour to the raspberry. All these are Fuegian plants, but they are far more abundant in the Falklands. During early spring the banks near the sea are enamelled with a few highly beautiful and conspicuous flowers, such as are chiefly common to Patagonia: they are Oxalis enneaphylla, a wood-sorrel, with blossoms larger than those of the snow- drop; a curious little Calceolaria, bearing a single large flower; a yellow violet; and a