300 NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
alone, yield abundant pasturage to as many cattle as there 
is ever likely to be a demand for on the Falklands. 
The same writer proceeds to inform us that the immense - 
abundance and luxuriant growth of this Grass, render it quite 
a striking feature in the landscape. The roots form great 
balls, which even rise 5 or 6 feet above the ground, and the 
long leaves, springing from the culms, hang down all round 
in the most graceful manner. The heaps or “ tussacks” grow 
generaly apart, but within a few feet of each other, the in- 
termediate space of ground being quite bare of vegetation, 
so that in walking among them, you are perfectly hidden from 
view, and the whole Tussack ground forms a complete laby- 
rinth. (See the adjoining Wood-Cut). 
The experiment of cultivating this valuable Grass promised 
to answer well in the Falklands; where, in the Governors 
garden, it was coming up strongly from seed, drilled in rows, © 
like Turneps. It must, however, be taken into consideration, 
that for Tussack to thrive in this country, the plant must so 
far change its habits of the Southern Hemisphere, as to forget 
that our winter is its summer, and vice-versa. 
D'Urville says that the Penguins build their nests and 
hatch their young beneath the shady tufts of this grass. 
The same despatch to the Colonial Office, in which the 
above description is given, contains’ also a letter from the 
botanist of the Antarctic Expedition to the governor, in which 
another grass, among the many valuable Graminee which the 
Falklands produce, is particularly noticed. This is of scarcely 
inferior importance to the Tussack, and being much more 
universally diffused over the islands, it must be far less par- 
ticular as to soil and situation. It is a kind of Fescue-Grass, 
the Festuca Alopecurus of D’Urville (Arundo Alopecurus, 
Gaudichaud). In the Report presented to Govr. Moody by 
te botanist, and transmitted to Lord Stanley, it is stated : 
Another grass, however, of far more extensive distribution 
than the Tussack, scarcely yields to it in nutritious qualities. 
It covers every peat-bog with a dense and rich clothing of 
