FROM THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. 141 
“The littoral of the islands is fringed with Empetrum rubrum, the * heather’ 
of these climes, but this never extends many miles inland. А belt of 
maritime lichens, of which Латайта terebrata is one of the largest and most 
conspicuous, is noticeable on the shore, and the beautiful orange-red alga 
(Trentepohlia polycarpa) is also especially common on maritime rocks. 
* The coarse white grass (Arundo pilosa), which gives to the pasture-lands 
in sunshine a corn-golden tone, covers vast areas, and ‘ Fachina? (Chilto- 
trichum amelloideum), on which a new Uredine was found, fills the valleys, 
the sweet-scented Veronica elliptica occurring only on the littoral of the 
Western Island. Immense tracts of ground are rendered quite useless by 
the two ferns Lomaria alpina (= Blechnum Penna-marina, Kuhn) and 
L. magellanica (= Blechnum tabulare, Kuhn), which no animal will devour, 
but their uselessness is in some measure compensated for by their varied hues, 
which add to the beauty of the undulating land. That most striking plant 
Bolax glebaria, which drew forth from Penrose some quaint and original 
remarks in his account of the British Settlement on Saunders Island in 1775, 
flourishes everywhere. On the dead stems of this plant, as also on the 
Veronica and Lomaria, delicate epiphytic Agarics were found (Pleurotus 
spp.?), but these unfortunately proved indeterminable. 
“The streams of stones or ‘stone runs’ аге one of the best-known features 
of the whole archipelago. They are more common on the eastern island 
than elsewhere, and are interesting botanically on account of their islets of 
vegetation. Saxicolous lichens are plentiful on the boulders composing the 
‘runs? Sand-hills, like the dunes in the eastern counties of England, occur 
in many places, and in some instances they are covered with a luxuriant 
growth of Senecio candicans and Chiliotrichum amelloideum. It was pre- 
sumably on this type of ground that the curious fungus Bulgaria arenaria, 
Lév., reported by Gaudichaud, but not since re-discovered, was gathered. 
“With regard to the marine alge, enormous quantities of ‘Kelp’ are 
washed ashore, and after severe gales banks may at times be seen 6 feet high 
and 10-15 yards wide, stretching for 100 yards or more along the shore. 
This represents many tons of Durvillea, Macrocystis, and Lessonia torn up 
and hurled ashore from deep water. One fact particularly attracted my 
attention during a big on-shore gale, and I noted it also on several subsequent 
occasions. When the * Kelp’ is being torn up and the fronds and stems are 
being broken by the fury of the elements, the mucilaginous substance exuded 
from these broken seaweeds is so great that it has almost the effect of oil in 
smoothing the crests of the waves. This is at times so markedly the case 
that the rollers lose much of their danger. 
“Our chief collecting-grounds for algæ were West Point Island, Roy 
Cove, and Shallow Bay, but in addition to these we were able to wander 
many miles along the sheltered creeks and fiords on most parts of the West 
Falklands, 
