TRISTAN DA CUNHA. Ill 



Lomaria alpina are most abundant under the cliffs. The Lomaria 

 plants where situate on stony slopes, and comparatively starved, 

 were all provided with fertile fronds, whilst when growing in 

 rich vegetable mould, they were commonly without fructification. 



The commonest flowering plants under the cliffs are Apium 

 australe, wild celery, almost the same as the common garden 

 plant abundant here, in Tierro del Fuego, and in the Falkland 

 Islands : the crowberry : the common sow-thistle, a cosmopolitan 

 weed : and a plant with strongly scented leaves (Chenopodium 

 tornentosum), which is used as tea by the islanders, a decoction 

 of the leaves being drunk with milk and sugar. The islanders 

 call it " tea." 



Creeping amongst the damp moss, is a small narrow-leaved 

 plant with small bright red berries (Nertera depressa). 



The streams which run down the cliffs, and which vary from 

 violent dashing cascades in rain time, to narrow rills fed only 

 by the melting of the snow above in dry weather, were small at 

 the time of our visit ; their water soaks into the banks of sand 

 at the foot of the cliffs and on the shores, and is mostly lost, 

 but in some places reappears in the shape of shallow freshwater 

 ponds close to the sea beach. 



The water of the streams had a temperature of 50° F., whilst 

 the ponds were warmer, 54° F. The temperature of the lower 

 regions of the island is no doubt constantly reduced by the 

 descent of the cold water from the snow far above ; in the gully 

 above the settlement, shrubs of Phylica arborea commence at 

 about 400 feet elevation. 



The trees have in this locality all been cut down for fire- 

 wood, but there is still plenty of wood on the island : Phylica 

 arborea is the only tree occurring in the islands ; it is a species 

 found only in the Tristan da Cunha group, in Gough Island, and 

 in the far-off island of Amsterdam, 3,000 miles distant. Other 

 species of the genus occur at the Cape of Good Hope, but they 

 are low and shrubby. It belongs to the natural order of the 

 Buckthorns (Rhamnacew). 



The foliage of the tree is of a dark glossy green, with the 

 under sides of the narrow, almost needle-like leaves, white and 

 downy. Hence the tree, which in habit is very like a yew, 



