OF THE ANTARCTIC VOYAGE. 285 
“ In spite, too, of the hundred degrees of latitude which 
sever this island from Europe, there are many points in which 
their botanical productions resemble each other, as nume- 
rous examples will prove. 
“The gigantic Grass (Festuca flabellata, commonly called 
Tussack) which covers three-fourths of the Isle of Penguins 
and all the sandy dunes of the Bay of La Soledad, and 
whose enormous tufts look, at a distance, like a thick-set 
copsewood, has much affinity with our Dactylis. On the 
same dunes grow Apium graveolens, Statice cespitosa, Triti- 
cum junceum (?) and Lolium perenne. The Arundo pilosa, 
Avena redolens, Aira flexuosa and Festuca erecta constitute, 
of themselves, an excellent pasturage of great fertility, and 
cover an extent of many miles. On first observing Ceras- 
tium vulgatum, Alsine media, Sagina procumbens, Senecio vul- 
garis, Veronica serpyllifolia, and Rumex Acetosella, I inclined 
to the opinion that they were imported by man ; but, after- 
wards, the great profusion and distance from cultivated spots 
at which they grow, made me consider them indigenous; for 
it is hard to believe that winds or birds can have transported 
the seeds; and these European plants were, moreover, almost 
all seen by Commerson about the Straits of Magelhaens, 
nearly fifty years ago, with the addition of Cardamine hir- 
suta, Thlaspi Bursa pastoris, and Primula farinosa. 
* Many of the most prevalent European genera are repre- 
sented in these islands by species which strongly resemble 
those of the Old World; and of the eighty genera of plants 
which constitute the Flora, there are only between fifteen‘ 
and twenty which are not common to the European continent. 
These are Oreobolus, Gaimarda, Astelia, Callixene, Sisyrinchium, 
Drapetes, Nanodea, Calceolaria, Nassauvia, Baccharis, Perdi- 
cium, Oligosporus, Chiliotrichum, Nerteria, Azorella and Mi- 
sandra. In a word, the affinity is so considerable that I 
should almost think a botanist would feel himself more 
Strange if transported suddenly from Morbihan to the shores 
of the Var, than if set down on the Malouine Islands. 
VOL. II. x 
