302 NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
green in summer, and a pale yellow, good hay during the 
winter season. This hay, though formed by nature without 
the operation of mowing and drying, keeps those cattle 
which have not access to the Tussack in excellent condition, 
as was proved by the beef with which our hunting parties 
supplied, for four months, the Discovery Ships. No bog, 
however rank, seems too bad for this plant to luxuriate upon, 
and as was observed during a surveying excursion which had 
been made to Port William, although the soil on the Quartz 
districts was very unprolific in many good grasses which 
flourish on the clay-slate, and was, generally speaking, of the | 
worst description, still this Fescue-Grass did not appear to 
be affected by the difference, nor did the cattle fail to eat 
down large tracts of such pasturage. 
“The numerous troops of horses, too on the flanks of th 
Wickham heights, can procure little other fodder; while 
those of Mount Lowe and Mount Vernet must depend upon 
it entirely. Should the Tussack disappear from any part of 
the Falklands where stall-fed cattle are kept, it might be 
advisable to treat this Fescue Grass, as hay in England; by 
which process its nutritious qualities would, doubtless, be 
much better secured to the animals during winter, than by l 
suffering the leaves gradually to wither, and not gathermg 
them till nature has evaporated all the juices. For sheep it 
might also answer well, when converted into hay, though i 
seems likely that the wet nature of this grass, together with 
the damp situations where it grows, would prevent these 
creatures from thriving upon it, if restricted to such diet; 
and at all events, newly imported flocks should not be sud- . 
denly removed from dry food to what is of so very succulent | 
a nature." 
The Governor states in another despatch to the Colonial 
Office, that two Americans who wandered upon West Falk- 
land for fourteen months, lived upon the roots (probably the 
young shoots from among the roots) daily, and formed theif — 
huts of the cushion-like base, rolling one to the small door - 
way or opening when night came on. 
