Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/246

214 from damp to dry, are particularly inimical to luxuriant vegetation, and no foliage but perhaps the coriaceous growth of Australia could endure them. The characteristics both of Fuegia and Patagonia may be seen mingled in the Falklands, and except Veronica elliptica (Part I. p. 58), which is chiefly confined to the western coasts of the western island, the plants of both these countries appear together, overspreading the whole surface of the islands. Few species are peculiar, and no genus or order predominates to any remarkable extent, unless it be the Gramine&aelig;: the species themselves are well marked and do not run much into varieties. Though the want of shade is unfavourable to the fruiting of Mosses and Hepatic&aelig;, there are a considerable number of species of those orders, and some are identical with those of the American mountains and of Europe.

Bougainville was the first voyager and man of science who noticed the vegetable productions of the Falklands, the most remarkable of which are certainly the Tussac Grass and the Balsam-bog (Bolax glebaria). The first collection of importance was formed by M. Gaudichaud, under the following very peculiar circumstances.

M. Gaudichaud accompanied Admiral Louis de Freycinet, who sailed from France in the year 1817, in command of an expedition, composed of two corvettes, the 'Uranie' and 'Physicienne.' The objects of the voyage were entirely scientific, and the chief places visited were New Holland and the East Indian Islands to the north of that country, the South Sea Islands, Tierra del Fuego, and the Falklands. The magnetical observations, chiefly by Admiral Freycinet himself, were amongst the most valuable ever made in the Southern Hemisphere, previous to the voyage of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror,' and many other results of the expedition were of equal importance. After having nearly circuinnavigated the globe, the navigators doubled Cape Horn in 1820, and regaining the Atlantic Ocean, naturally expected that the dangers incident to such a voyage were over. On preparing to enter Berkeley Sound, however, the 'Uranie' struck upon a hidden rock close to the shore, but on the lee-side of the island. If the usual wind and weather had prevailed on that occasion, the frigate must have been blown out to sea and probably all hands lost; the violence of the gales and boisterous ocean incident to that latitude often rendering the boats unavailable when most required. Providentially the elements allowed Admiral Freycinet's skill to be effectual in saving his ship, which he ran ashore in Berkeley Sound. Amongst the losses occasioned by this calamity was that of the greater part of the collections of the entire voyage, made by the indefatigable Gaudichaud; 1500 species alone escaping destruction. The probable value of the rest we may estimate from the excellent botanical notices of the various islands visited, which show the materials to have been very considerable, or such knowledge could not have been displayed. Especially we must applaud the persevering zeal with which this naturalist commenced forming a collection which constituted the foundation upon which all other floras of the Falklands have been raised.

The results of M. Gaudichaud's labours were first published in the "Annales des Sciences Naturelles," and afterwards in the botanical portion of Admiral Freycinet's voyage. The