2 Melvill, Plants from the Falkland Islands. 



ox Bolax gleharia Comm.,or Balsam-Bog, called "Gommier" 

 by Pernetty. This is a plant almost impossible to preserve 

 as a botanical specimen, appearing to consist of huge 

 mounds of pale yellowish-green colour, almost as hard as 

 stone. As remarked by Sir W. J. Hooker, a pleasant aroma 

 arises from these mounds on a warm, sunny day. They 

 stand alone, though gregarious, often as high as 5 feet 

 from the ground, and frequently 8 feet in breadth. These 

 mounds, when examined, are found to consist of closely 

 imbricating leaves and young shoots, the older portions 

 still adhering having died away from beneath, so that 

 frequently these conglomerate masses resemble large balls. 

 It is estimated that some of them must be many hundred 

 years old. Each of them is, however, the product of a single 

 seed. The plant has a tendency always to send out lateral 

 ramifications, these dividing, and again subdividing, soon 

 render the plant inextricably involved, and ultimately the 

 surface becomes quite smooth. Lichens and mosses, and 

 other parasitic plants make themselves a home whenever 

 any inequality in the plant allows it. A gum, aromatic 

 and healing, exudes from every part, and has been used as 

 a styptic with some measure of success. 



Another plant as conspicuous, and quite as interesting, 

 descanted upon by every traveller who has visited these 

 islands, is the famed Tussack (or Tussock) grass {Poa 

 caespiiosa), formerly considered a Dactylis. 



This was discovered by Gaudichaud as a native of the 

 Falkland Islands, and is also a native of the Straits of 

 Magellan and Tierra del Fuego. It attains a height 

 of six or seven feet. The report of the Botany of the 

 Antarctic Voyage in H.M.S. 'Erebus' and 'Terror,' 

 under the command of Sir James Clark Ross, written 

 by Sir William Hooker,* gives an exhaustive account of 



* Hooker, London Journal of Botany, Vol. II., pp. 285 sqq. 



