142 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



water within the action of the surf. The usual belt of Macrocystis ranges along this side of the 

 island. 



" Nightingale Island. — Tussock grass (Spartina arundinacea) covers the whole island with a 

 dense growth, excepting on the summits of the ridges and a few patches here and there on the 

 lower tract, which are occupied by Phylica nitida. The tussock here, as at Inaccessible Island, 

 forms an enormous penguin rookery. It was found impossible to reach the highest points of the 

 island, the growth of grass being so thick that it was extremely difficult to penetrate. The plants 

 found on the island were the same as those met with on Inaccessible Island, and grew here under 

 similar conditions. Lycopodium sawurus was found here, however, on the only high ground 

 attained ; and a groundsel-like plant (Gotida moselcyi), different from the one so common in 

 Tristan, and not found in Inaccessible Island, was extremely abundant, growing even on unoccupied 

 spots in the rookery. Several plants found in the other islands were not seen here, amongst these 

 Soachus olcraccus. The island has never been inhabited, and is visited only in the sealing time. 

 Two fungi were found on the dead stems of Phylica nitida. A large number of these trees had at 

 one spot been prostrated by the wind, and were lying dead. The small outlying islands are covered 

 with tussock, and are rookeries. 



" The rocky shelves on the coast frequented by the seals, and leading up to their caves, are 

 coated with a thin layer of a small dark green Ulva. The rocks and the algas were quite dry at 

 the time of our visit, and were some feet above the reach of the ordinary surf. The dried dark 

 green pellicle on the rock had a peculiar shining appearance, almost metallic. Specimens of the 

 rock, with the alga attached, are sent to Kew. There is the usual belt of Macrocystis pyrifera here, 

 very dense, and difficult for a boat to push through." 



From the foregoing extracts we learn that Phylica nitida and Spartina arundinacea 

 constitute almost the whole of the conspicuous part of the vegetation of these islands, 

 and it is only on a closer inspection that the other elements become apparent. The 

 Phylica often occurs in patches or coppices in the midst of large areas of the grass, the 

 ground beneath being covered with a thick growth of sedges, ferns, and mosses, associated 

 with Nertera depressa, Accena sanguisorbce, Chenopodium tomentosum, &c. 



Mr Moseley is the author of the following particulars of these two plants : — 



" In the penguin rookeries the grass, known to the inhabitants of Tristan as ' tussock,' has a 

 habit which appears to be closely similar to that of the Falkland tussock, Dactylis cccspitosa, as 

 described by Sir Joseph Hooker in the Flora Antarctica, p. 384. This grass grows to a height 

 of five or six feet, springing in tufts, and forming massive boles or clumps at its base, composed 

 of the contorted bases of the stalks and root-fibres closely matted together. These masses are 

 tough and hard, almost requiring an axe to cut them. The grass thrives best where the ground 

 is saturated with the penguins' dung. The basal masses gradually pass into a peaty, richly 

 manured soil, thus formed, several feet in thickness. The growth of grass is so dense that it 

 is with the utmost labour that a way can be forced through it, except along the penguin roads; 

 and it is so high, that it is only by mounting on an occasional rock, fallen from above, that the 

 direction which has been taken can be made out. 



