22 NATUKAL HISTORY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 



P 



but I have found very many flowers with a single petal, clawed and 

 faintly pink-tinted at the large end; many with two, some with three, 

 and a few with four petals. They fall early and are easily overlooked 

 when present. Axillary flowers are more frequently petalous than those 

 crowded together upon the spike-like raceme. Observed to be in flower 

 Kovember 2. The leaves were eaten, as cabbage, by ourselves and the 

 ship's company of the Monongahela with relish ; our fowls were fond of 

 them, and they constituted the staple food of the live stock brought to 

 the island by the English party and the Monongahela. 



III.— CARYOPHYLLEiE. 



^. CoLOBANTHUS Kerguelensis, ^oofc. ^L — Found with ripe fruit 



January 2, growing in both high and low land, among loose gravel and 



between stones. 



IV.— PORTULACEiE. 



1. Lyallia Kerguelensis, ^oofc. yi^ — Grows by preference on the 

 sides of stony hills, almost always the southwest side, where it is 

 exposed (by rapid drainage and heavy rains) to frequent alternations of 

 dryness and moisture. Root thick, long, fleshy, and partly exposed 

 above ground. One specimen was found straddling a good-sized stone, 

 sending down roots on all sides. Flowers were first observed December 

 14, and the plant was already in seed December 21, when no flowers 

 could be found. The flowers are not "very inconspicuous," as Dr. 

 Hooker supposed they might be. They are plentiful, although apetalous, 

 and prominent as to their stamens and pistils, lending a pale yellowish- 

 green bloom to the mound which the plant forms, and quite conspicu- 

 ous enough to attract the attention of the casual observer. Neither 

 can the plant be properly said to be " very local," in this part of the 

 island at least, since, although rare, many are usually found collected 

 together in the same place. [Dr. Hooker's specimens had only the cap- 

 sules and calyx. With the present complete specimens, the whole struc- 

 ture of the flower is made out. The sepals are four, thin, somewhat 

 petaloid, oval, nearly unconnected. Petals none. Stamens three, 

 hypogynous or nearly so, larger than the calyx, two of them alternate 

 with sepals, and one before a sepal; anthers didymous, two-celled 

 Style larger than the ovary, two-cleft at summit, the lobes linear, stig- 

 matic for the whole length of the inner face. Ovules two or three from 

 the base of the cell, campylotropous. Utricle fleshy, coriaceous, apicu- 

 late with the persistent base of the style, apparently indehiscent. Seeds 

 two or three. Testa small. — A. G.] 



