Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/423

Falklands, etc.] who thus became, first the injurer, and then the protector and propagator of the existence of this noble grass; for the herbivorous quadrupeds which he carried to the Falklands and left there, were surely extirpating the Tussock, when man returned, and, by protecting, perpetuating, and transporting it to other countries, he has widely dispersed it. It appears singular that so striking a grass should abound where there is no native herbivorous animal to profit by its luxuriance; but it is no less certain that had not civilization interfered, the Tussock might have waved its green leaves undisturbed over the waters of the stormy Antarctic Ocean, for ever perhaps, or until some fish, fowl, or seal, should be so far tempted by the luxuriance of the foliage as to transgress the laws of nature, and to adapt its organs to the digestion and enjoyment of this long-neglected gift of a bounteous Providence.

It must appear strange to all who know grasses only in the pastures of England, that the patches of Tussock resemble nothing so much as groves of small low Palm-trees ! This similarity arises from the matted roots of the individual plants springing in cylindrical masses, always separated down to the very base, and throwing out a waving head of foliage from each summit. Bogs and damp woods in Britain very frequently produce a Sedge (Carer paniculata), whose mode of growth is, on a small scale, identical with that of the Tussock-Grass, and to which the name of Tussock is applied. I have seen them two to three feet above the ground, in South Wales; and if they were higher, larger, and placed closer together, the general resemblance would be complete. The effect in walking through a large Tussock grove is very singular, from the uniformity in height of these masses, and the narrow spaces left between them, which form an effectual labyrinth; leaves and sky are all that can be seen overhead, and their curious boles of roots and decayed vegetable matter on both sides, before and behind ; except now and then, where a penguin peeps forth from his hole, or the traveller stumbles over a huge Sea-lion, stretched along the ground, blocking up his path.

Plate CXXXVL — CXXXVII. Fig. 1, locusta ; fig. 2, floret ; Jig, 3, squamulae, stamens, and pistil ; Jig. 4, squamula; Jig. 5, polleu ; Jig. 6, caryopsis : — all magnified.

15. CATABROSA, Beauv.

1. Catabrosa Magellanica, Hook, fil.; glaberrima, panicula elongata laxe ramosa, ramis apice fioriferis elongatis, glumis ina?qualibus apice erosis 4-6-floris superiore majore 3-nervi, palea inferiore ovato-oblonga obtusa 5-nervi glaberrima vix costata, eulmo erecto foliorum vaginis tecto, foliorum lamina involuta vagina breviore.

Hab. Strait of Magalhaens ; Port Famine, Copt. King.

Gramen pedale, erectum, glaberrimum. Culmi basi prostrati, divisi. Foliorum, vagina latiuscula, 3-5 una longa, striata, hians ; ligitla ovata, acuta ; lamina 2-3-uneialis, anguste lineari-subulata, superne scaberula, marginibus involutis. Panicula 5-7 unc. longa, erccta ; ramis gracilibus verticillatis v. fastigiatis, inferioribus 4 una longis, fibformibus, glaberrimis, flexuosis, apices versus divisis et fioriferis. Locmtce ~ unc. longa;, sub 4-florae. Gluma inferior lanceolata, acuta v. truncato-erosa ; superiore oblongo-lanceolata 3-nervi obtusa erosa breviore. Flosculi basi dissiti, glaberrimi, cylindracei. Palea inferior oblongo-ovata, obtusa, sub-erosa, obscure 5-nervis, eeostata, marginibus subciliatis, superior brevior, apice bidentata. Antherm parvse, late oblonga?.

Quite a distinct species, and differing from the typical plants of the genus in having many florets contained in each locusta.

16. BROMUS, L.

1. Jincmvs pic fuj, Hook, fil.; strictus, erectus, simplex, puberulus, panicula simpbei, locustis sub 4 magnis pedunculis longioribus, glumis lineari-oblongis subacutis medio nervosis flosculisque purpureo-pietis