Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/303

] from the apex of which numerous fronds spread on all sides: it is generally seen in stony places, and has much the aspect of a miniature Zamia.

"Hardly any of the Falkland Island plants are esculent: those which are so have valuable antiscorbutic qualities; particularly the common celery, which abounds on the shores, also a species of Cardamine and Oxalis enneaphylla. Both the latter are called scurvy-grass, and would doubtless prove beneficial in cases of that disease. The lower part of the culm in the tussock is so fleshy and juicy, that, when a tuft of leaves is drawn out from a tussock-bog, an inch of the base, about the thickness of a finger, affords a very sweet morsel, with a flavour like nuts. Two men subsisted almost entirely upon this substance for fourteen months. They had wandered or deserted from their ship upon the West Falkland Island, where there are no habitations. The only protection from the weather that they could avail themselves of, was a hut made of the bogs or masses formed by tufted roots of this plant heaped upon one another: one of which was rolled to the opening at night, and served for a door. The berries of the Empetrum and Myrtus are edible, though ordinary; but the fruit of the Rubus equals a raspberry in size and flavour.

"Some European plants, long ago introduced by persons who have touched on these shores, are now scattered, through the agency of the cattle and horses, all over the eastern islands. I allude