Dr. Hooker's Flora Antarctica. 167 



of the leaf, and which are very conspicuous on making a trans- 

 verse section of the head. During the whole stay of the Erebus 

 and Terror in Christmas Harbor, daily use was made of this veg- 

 etable, either cooked by itself or broiled with the ships' beef, pork, 

 or pea-soup. The essential oil gives a peculiar flavor which the 

 majority of the officers and the crew did not dislike, and which 

 rendered the herb even more wholesome than the common cab- 

 bage; for it never caused heart-burn, or any of the unpleasant 

 r symptoms which that plant sometimes produces. Invaluable as 



it is in its native place, it is very doubtful whether it will ever 

 prove equally so in other situations. It is of such slow growth 

 that it probably could not be cultivated to advantage. * * * * 

 Growing spontaneously and in so great abundance where it does, 

 it is likely to prove, for ages to come, an inestimable blessing to 

 ships touching at this far distant isle, whilst its luxuriance amid 

 surrounding desolation, its singular form and appearance striking 

 even the casual observer, and the feelings of loneliness and utter 

 isolation from the rest of the world that must more or less oppress 

 every voyager at first landing on its dreary and inhospitable local- 

 ity, are circumstances likely to render the Kerguelen's Land cab- 

 bage — cabbage though it be — a cherished object in the recollec- 

 tion of the mariner; one never to be effaced by the brighter or 

 luscious products of a tropical vegetation." 



Dr. Hooker's account of the Balsam-bog (Bolax glebaria) of the 

 Falkland, as originally printed in the I cones Plantarum, was ex- 

 tracted for this Journal on a former occasion. (Vol. iii, 2d ser., 121.) 



Nothing can be more interesting to the vegetable physiologist, 

 than his complete and most able account of the anatomical struc- 

 ture and parasitism of Myzodendron, a Fuegian genus of woody 

 parasites of the Mistleto family, illustrated by a series of incom- 

 parable figures, which have won for the youthful author an en- 

 viable reputation for his talents in that department of investiga- 

 tion. These plates (102 to 107, 107 bis, and 107 ter) are the 

 great glory of the work. Want of room alone prevents our no- 

 ticing Dr. Hooker's excursus on the potato, and his interesting ac- 

 count of the Antarctic beeches, the two principal species of which 

 have been imported into England by this expedition, where they 

 promise to succeed well. But we must by no means omit the 

 famous Tussock grass (Dactylis caespitosa) of the Falkland 

 Islands, which, successfully raised from seeds, bids fair to thrive 

 JO Great Britain. It would be well to try it on our own shores, 

 b, U we can scarcely expect it to live in our extreme climate. The 

 summers of the foggy coast of Maine would doubtless agree with 

 11 ; hut it would hardly withstand the winter even of New Jer- 

 sey, where probably the summer is too dry. 



" It was not until the recent colonization of the Falklands 

 b y tfie British, that attention was particularly directed to the 



