OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 259 
* The next most remarkable plant is a little tufted Umbel- 
liferous one. It forms long brown patches on the shores, 
the banks and rocks; sometimes covering many acres of land 
with deep cushions, on which you may, from their elasticity, 
lie with comfort, though, at other times, you sink up to the 
middle. The tap-roots of old tufts strike many feet into 
the soil which its own self has formed (owing to its property 
of shooting annually upwards) from the withered tops of the 
previous years’ shoots, like Bryum Ludwigii. The flowers 
are scarce and very inconspicuous. It has no smell, nor any 
essential or other oil ; but is remarkable as one of a group of 
Unbellifere, peculiar, I believe, to the southern hemisphere, 
and there only found in exceedingly alpine or antarctic 
regions.* 
An Acena is the next plant of frequent occurrence, grow- 
ing in bogs, or creeping over the dried soil, like Comarum at 
home, of which it put me much in mind. All the above- 
mentioned species are nearly confined to the vicinity of the 
Sea; the Cabbage and Halorageous species alone being found 
at any height above its level, and all are frequently exposed 
. to the salt surf, apparently with impunity. 
* At an elevation of about 300 feet above the sea, and also 
~ near it, I observed a small tufted Silene (?), two Grasses, one 
|. Of them a little Poa,and the other a most beautiful (Aira?), with | | 
remote horizontal spikelets, on long peduncles ; the latter is cee 
rather scarce, and certainly is the most delicate and pretty - 
plant on the island, it grows in marshy places. On E 
banks of two smalllakes, between Christmas Harbour and- Ev 
 North-west Bay, a little Juncus occurs, and in the lakes ze 
most remarkable plant, which resembles Subularia aquatica, 
forming green patches, a foot or 2 feet beneath the surface of 
_ the water, on a loose muddy bottom. There it flowers; the 
close imbrication of the calycine sequents and those of the 
* The plant here alluded to is probably a Bolaz, and allied to, PME 
. different from the remarkable “ Balsam Bog.” (Bolaz glebaria), of the 
Falkland Islands.—Ep. - 
