Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/304

270 particularly to Veronica serpyllifolia, Poa annua, Senecio vulgaris, Cerastium viscosum, and Stellaria media.

"The peculiar mode of growth of the Tussock-grass (Dactylis cæspitosa) enables it to thrive in pure sand, and near the sea, where it has the benefit of an atmosphere loaded with moisture, of soil enriched by decaying sea-weeds, of manure, which is composed in the Falkland Islands of an abundant supply of animal matter, in the form of guano, and of the excrements of numerous birds, who deposit their eggs, rear their young, and find a habitation amongst the groves of Tussock. Its general locality is on the edges of those peat bogs which approach the shore, where it contributes considerably to the formation of peat. Though not universal along the coast of these islands, the quantity is still prodigious, for it is always a gregarious grass, extending in patches sometimes for nearly a mile, but seldom seen, except within the influence of the sea air. This predilection for the ocean does not arise from an incapacity to grow and thrive except close to the salt water, but because other plants not suited to the sea shore already cover the ground in more inland localities, and prevail over it. I have seen the Tussock on inaccessible cliffs in the interior, having been brought there by the birds, and afterwards manured by them; and, when cultivated, it thrives, both in the Falklands and in England, far from the sea.

"I know of no grass likely to yield nearly so great