REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ISLANDS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. 189 



" The Azorclla forms low, convex, bright green patches in intervals between the Acmna or cake- 

 like masses at its roots. 



" Azorella selago is a characteristic plant of the Southern Islands, forming large convex masses often 

 several feet in diameter, which are compact and firm, and when on solid ground, yield little to the 

 tread. The masses are made up of the stems and shoots of the plants, closely packed together side 

 by side, with their flowering tips and small, stiff, and tough leaves forming an even, rounded surface 

 at the exterior, being all of the same length. The interior of the masses is full of dead leaves and 

 stems. The whole, where growing in abundance, forms sheets and hummocks, which invest the soil 

 sometimes for acres in extent at Kerguelen's Land with a continuous elastic green coating. An 

 allied plant (Bolax glebaria) forms similar masses at the Falkland Islands, and there is a tendency in 

 many Antarctic plants to assume a similar habit, as in the case, e.g., of Lyallia kcrguelensis. 



" The Poa is abundant everywhere, mingled with the Acmna and Azorclla. The plants are, no 

 doubt, rendered especially luxuriant by the dung of the numerous sea-birds ; but no mutual benefit 

 arrangement has sprung up between the Poa and the penguins, as it has at the Tristan da Cunha 

 group between the penguins and Spartina arundinacea. 



"Poa coohii nowhere forms a tussock. The rookeries of king penguins are entirely bare, and 

 the grass is not more luxuriant around the nests of the golden- crested penguins than elsewhere. The 

 Poa was the only grass found in flower in the island. Different-looking forms were observed, especially 

 around the numerous pools of water on the hill slopes ; but they are possibly mere modifications of 

 the same grass due to alteration of conditions. None of them were in flower. Pringlea antiscorbutica, 

 the Kerguelen cabbage, is, at least in the part of the island explored, by no means so abundant as at 

 Kerguelen's Land. It was some time before a plant was found ; but subsequently a good many 

 were met with, but not growing in groups of more than four or five plants. Some were found on 

 the very verge of the shore, within reach of the spray, and the rest ou the banks of a small rivulet. 

 The cabbage was mostly in full flower and bud, with sepals and anthers complete. No plants were 

 found with seeds at all ripe. The last year's seeds were decayed. This plant at least would appear 

 to have a regular summer flowering-season, since Sir Joseph Hooker found only the fruit at 

 Kerguelen's Land in the winter. 



" Of the ferns, Lomaria alpina is the most conspicuous, forming thick and wide patches amongst 

 the Acwna and Poa, and occurring abundantly everywhere. Aspidium mohriodes was found growing 

 under sheltered banks beside the small stream, together with the other three ferns. 



" Rymenophyllum tunbridgensc, /3 ivilsoni, a British species, and Polypodium australe, grow abun- 

 dantly on the sheltered sides of the projecting rock-masses already mentioned, but are dwarfed and almost 

 hidden amongst the mosses. They grow in greatest luxuriance on the damp banks of the stream. 



" The mosses are in most striking abundance, and, in some very wet places, form continuous 

 sheets over the ground many square yards in extent. Lichens are not in very great quantity, except 

 the incrusting forms, which are tolerably abundant on the rocks. 



" An attempt was made to reach the actual upper limit of vegetation, but failed from being 

 commenced too late in the day. The ascent was up the bed of the small stream already mentioned, 

 which lay at the verge of one of the modern lava-flows, where it abutted on a low cliff, exposing a 

 more ancient flow in section. The more recent flow had a very gradual inclination of not more than 

 8°. The first scattered patches of snow were encountered at about an elevation of 800 feet. A 

 patch of the cabbage was met with at 1000 feet. 



