Page:The birds of Tierra del Fuego - Richard Crawshay.djvu/41

Rh a Haw-thorne, but that it is greene, each being of the bignesse of a Pepper-corne, and every of them contayning within four or five granes, twice as bigge as a Musterd-seed, which broken are white within, as the good Pepper, and bite much like it, but hotter. The barke of this Tree hath savour of all kinde of Spices together, most comfortable to the Stomack, and held to be better than any Spice whatsoeuer."

The Holly-leafed Barberry grows so densely in places as to make parts of the forest absolutely impenetrable. Its thorns are many times more formidable than those of Berberis huxifolia.

Parasitic on trees is the Mistletoe-like Myzodendron pundulatum. A hoary grey Lichen (Usnea), streaming in long festoons, imparts to the forest a truly eerie and ghost-like appearance.

Fungi are one of the wonders of the forest. Mr. George Massee, who has himself studied this flora in Tierra del Fuego, considers the Tree Morels especially interesting. Cyttaria darwinii, C. berterii, and C. hookeri, he says, grow on living branches of different species of Beech {Fagus); and are also met with on species of Fagus in Tasmania and New Zealand. Everywhere these Fungi are a staple article of food to the aboriginals. Polyporus fuegianus forms large bracket-like out-growths on the trunks of trees; and Fistulana antarctica—a close ally of the British Beefsteak Fungus (F. hepatica), which it is said to surpass in delicacy of flavour—also occurs abundantly in similar situations.

There are not many Flowers. The most beautiful is a white Snowdrop-like Orchis (Codonorchis lessonii), with a faint sweet smell. The Yellow Violet {Viola maculata) is exceedingly pretty, but scentless. What interested me more than all was the tiny Ruhus geoides, growing flat on Moss-covered boulders.

Some four species of Ferns occur:—a variety of the widely distributed very variable Aspidium aculeatum; Asplenium magellanicum; Hymenophyllum wilsoni; and Lomaria.

At the lower altitudes. Mosses—principally Bartramia—completely cover everything like a heavy fall of snow, so