Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/299

] , which, with the common European Cerastium arvense, whiten the clay-slate banks that skirt the shores of Berkeley Sound. The heaths and grassy lands are spotted, at the same season, with a white primrose, nearly identical with our Primula farinosa: there also grows the above-mentioned Sisyrinchium, of which the nodding white blossoms recall the snow-flake; and a plant, which resembles dandelion, but has white and pleasantly scented flowers, smelling like benzoin, is also abundant.

"Nowhere in the world are Lichens more conspicuous than in the Falklands. The beautiful Usnea melaxantha, also a native of the arctic regions, forms a miniature shrubbery on the tops of naked rocks on the hills; while their sides are coated with many species, almost invariably identical with those of Great Britain. Along the sea beach grow many species of this group, especially a pendent Ramalina, very near the R. scopulorum of Europe, and attaining a length of eight inches: it hangs so copiously from the rocks as in many places to cover them entirely.

"Sea-weeds abound prodigiously on the outer rocky coasts, nor did we elsewhere see such enormous masses of marine vegetation as were cast upon the beach of the east shore of the Falklands. They consist principally of Macrocystis pyrifera, mentioned as a native of Kerguelen's Land, Lessoniæ, and D'Urvillœa utilis. Wrenched from their attachment to the rocks and washed ashore, these