240 FLORA ANTAECTICA. [Fuegia, the 



that the point of an instrument may be placed between them, each arises immediately from the insertion of the funiculi, 

 separating the parallel rows of seeds, a space occupied in Prinijlea by a distinct groove or channel. The form of the 

 seed and the thick spongy testa produced at the apex into a short rostrum, are far more characteristic of cruciferous 

 plants with an incumbent than with an accumbent radicle; but that organ is here, as in Cocldearia, distinctly accumbent. 



The contemplation of a vegetable very unlike any other in botanical affinity and in general appearance, so emi- 

 nently fitted for the food of man, and yet inhabiting one of the most desolate and inhospitable spots on the surface of 

 the globe, must equally fill the mind of the scientific enquirer and common observer with wonder. The very fact of 

 Kerguelen's Land being possessed of such a singularly luxuriant botanical feature, confers on that small island 

 an importance far beyond what its volcanic origin or its dimensions would seem to claim ; whilst the certainty that 

 so conspicuous a plant can never have been overlooked in any larger continent, but that it was created in all pro- 

 bability near where it now grows, leads the mind back to an epoch far anterior to the present, when the vegetation 

 of the Island of Desolation may have presented a fertility of which this is perhaps the only remaining trace. Many 

 tons of coal and vast stores of now silicified wood (which I have mentioned in the introduction to this Part) are 

 locked up in or buried under those successive geological formations which have many times destroyed the forests of 

 this island, and as often themselves supported a luxuriant vegetation. The fires that desolated Kerguelen's Land 

 are long ago extinct, nor does the island show any signs of the recent exertion of those powers, that have at one time 

 raised parts of it from the bed of the ocean with those submarine alga? which once carpetted its shores, but which 

 now are some hundred feet above, the present level of the sea. The Pringlea, in short, seems to have led an uninter- 

 rupted and tranquil life for many ages ; but however loth we may be to concede to any one vegetable production an 

 antiquity greater than another, or to this island a position to other lands wholly different from what it now presents, 

 the most casual inspection of the ground where the plant now grows, will force one of the two following conclusions 

 upon the mind ; either that it was created after the extinction of the now buried and for ever lost vegetation, over 

 whose remains it abounds, or that it spread over the island froni another and neighbouring region where it was un- 

 disturbed during the devastation of this, but of whose existence no indication remains. 



The illustrious Cook first discovered and drew attention to the " Kerguelen's Land Cabbage " during his first 

 voyage, when accompanied by Mr. Anderson as surgeon and naturalist. The latter gentleman drew up an account 

 of some of the more remarkable plants which he collected there and in other islands, which are preserved in the 

 Banksian library ; the present he designated as Pringlea in honour of Sir- John Pringle, who wrote a work upon 

 Scurvy. The latter circumstance has induced me, at Mr. Brown's suggestion, to assign the trivial name of anti- 

 scoriutica. The Pringlea is exceedingly abundant over all parts of the island, ascending the lulls up to 1400 feet, but 

 only attaining its usually large size close to the sea, where it is invariably the first plant to greet the voyager, like 

 the Cocldearia or scurvy-grass upon many northern coasts. Its long rhizomata, often 3 or 4 feet long, lie along the 

 ground ; they are sometimes 2 inches in diameter, full of spongy and fibrous substance intermixed, of a half woody 

 texture, and with the flavour of horse-radish, and bear at the extremity large heads of leaves, sometimes 18 inches 

 across, so like those of the common cabbage that if growing in a garden with then' namesakes in England they woidd 

 not excite any particular attention ; the outer leaves are coarse, loosely placed and spreading, the inner form a dense 

 white heart, that tastes like mustard and cress, but is much coarser. The whole foliage abounds with essential oil 

 of a pale yellow colour, highly pungent, and confined in vessels that run parallel with the veins of the leaf, and 

 which are very conspicuous on making a transverse section of the head. 



Dining the whole stay of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' in Christmas Harbour, daily use was made of this vege- 

 table, either cooked by itself or boiled with the ships' beef, pork, or pea-soup ; the essential oil gives a peculiar 

 flavour which the majority of the officers and the crew did not dislike, and which rendered the herb even more 

 wholesome than the common cabbage, for it never caused heart-burn, or any of the unpleasant symptoms which that 

 plant sometimes produces. Invaluable as it is in its native place, it is very doubtful whether this plant will ever 

 prove equally so in other situations. It is of such slow growth that it probably coidd not be cultivated to advan- 

 tage, and I fear that, unlike the cow cabbage of Jersey, it woidd fonn no new heads after the old ones were removed, 



