OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 283 
tions, and have no affinity with the growth of the soil. It is 
very singular, that neither Leguminose, Labiate, Boraginee, 
or Chenopodee, groups which prevail in almost every part 
of the world, exist in the Falklands. Seven species of Gra- 
minee, together with three Cyperacee, and four Junci, are 
found in such profusion, and form such dense tufts, as to 
engross nearly all the soil, to the great exclusion of other 
plants. When this thick grassy turf is separated, a prodi- 
gious quantity of Lichens, Mosses, Lycopodia, Marchantie 
-and some other Cryptogamie, with several phenogamous spe- 
cies, may be seen beneath it, mingled with small suffrutes- 
cent plants, whose stems are weak and creeping. 
* When the periodical return of winter puts a'close to 
this annual vegetation, the water which remains in the soil 
as in a sponge, preserves from entire decomposition those nu- 
merous plants which die, and their woody portions form a 
mass, which yearly adds to the amount of peat-bog. We may 
be allowed to conjecture that in these islands, as is the case 
in other parts of the world, the vegetable remains, by their 
gradual and imperceptible accumulation, will finally fill up 
the lakes." 
In the following year, namely 1826, a very similar memoir 
appeared in the 4th volume of the Mémoires de la Société 
Linnéenne, under the same title, Flores des Iles Malouines, 
and drawn up by the still more unfortunate M. J. Dumont 
d'Urville. This accomplished traveller and naturalist, as is — 
well known, had but recently returned from a second adven- 
turous voyage in the Antarctic regions, having escaped all 
the dangers attendant upon such hazardous undertakings; 
. but, on a little excursion of pleasure in the environs of Paris, 
he and his whole family fell victims to that most awful acci- 
dent on the railroad of Versailles, in May, 1842. In the 
voyage, when the materials for his Flore des Malouines were 
collected, M. d'Urville commanded the * Coquille,” and on 
the 18th of November, 1822, cast anchor in the immense 
Bay of La Soledad. “ What a descent," he says, * does the 
