184 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. iv. 



were thickly scattered over with hirge gray bowlders, hemi- 

 spherical or oval, three or four feet high, and three or four to six 

 or eight feet across. To heighten the illusion, many of these 

 blocks are covered with lichens, and bunches of grass grow in 

 soil collected in crevices, just as they would in little rifts in 

 rocks. These bowlder-like masses are single plants of Bolax 

 glebaria, an umbellifer which has the strange habit which we 

 had already seen in the Azorella of Kerguelen Island, only 

 greatly exaggerated. These lumps of balsam -bog are quite 

 hard and nearly smooth, and only when looked at closely they 

 are seen to be covered with small hexagonal markings like the 

 calyces on a weathered piece of coral. These are the circlets 

 of leaves and the leaf-buds terminating a multitude of stems, 

 which have gone on growing with extreme slowness and multi- 

 plying dichotomously for an unknown length of time, possibly 

 for centuries, ever since the plant started as a single shoot from 

 a seed. The growth is so slow, and the condensation from con- 

 stant branching is so great, that the block becomes nearly as 

 hard as the bowlder which it so much resembles, and it is diffi- 

 cult to cut a shaving from the surface with a sharp knife. Un- 

 der the unfrequent condition of a warm day with the sun shin- 

 ing, a pleasant aromatic odor may be perceived where these 

 plants abound, and a pale-yellow gum exudes from the surface, 

 which turns brown in drying. The gum is astringent, and 

 slightly aromatic, and the shepherds use it dissolved in spirit as 

 a balsam for wounds and sores. The flowers, which are very 

 inconspicuous, are produced at the ends of the branches, and 

 the characteristic cremocarps of the umbelliferse may be seen 

 scattered over the smooth surface of the ball in late summer. 



Bolax is uneatable, and can apparently be applied to no par- 

 ticular use ; and as it is widely distributed and abundant, it is 

 likely that it will long hold its place as one of the curiosities of 

 the Falklands : such is, unfortunately, not a reasonable anticipa- 

 tion for that prince of grasses, Dactylis ccBspitosa. The tussock- 



