260 TREES PLANTS — BALSAM. 



grown upon either Falkland, and that the more are planted the 

 better they would grow — assisting and sheltering each other. 

 At first, young plants or trees should have banks of earth raised 

 near them, to break the fury of south-west storms, and the most 

 sheltered situations, with a north-east aspect, should be chosen 

 for a beginning. 



Anti-scorbutic plants are plentiful in a wild state, such as 

 celery, scurvy-grass, sorrel, &c. ; there are also cranberries,* 

 and what the settlers call strawberries, a small red fruit, growing 

 like the strawberry, but in appearance and taste more like a 

 half -ripe blackberry. I must not omit the ' tea^plant,' made 

 from which I have drank many cups of good tea,-f- and the 

 settlers use it frequently. It has a peculiar effect at first upon 

 some people, which is of no consequence, and soon goes off.;}: 

 This little plant grows like a heath in many parts of the Falk- 

 lands as well as in Tierra del Fuego, and has long been known 

 and used by sealers.^ The large round gum plant ( Hydrocelice 

 gummifere), common in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, is 

 abundantly found, and, when dried, is useful for kindling 

 fires, being extremely combustible. The gum which exudes 

 from its stalks when cut or broken, is called by the settlers 

 ' balsam," and they use it quite fresh for wounds ; at the least 

 it answers the purpose of sticking-plaister. In summer it may 

 be collected in considerable quantities, without injuring the 

 plants, as it then oozes out spontaneously ; even while green, 

 the whole plant is very inflammable. The gauchos, when in 

 the interior of the islands, tear it asunder, set it on fire, and 

 roast their beef before it. Within the stems of the tall sedgy 

 grass, called tussac, is a white sweetish substance, something 

 like the kernel of an unripe nut ; this is often eaten by the set- 



* One reason for the arrival of flights of geese during April and May- 

 may be, that the cranberries are then ripe, of which they are very fond. 



t At my own table I have seen it drank by the officers without their 

 detecting the difference : yet the only tea I used at other times was the 

 best that could be obtained at Rio de Janeiro. 



+ U m ciens. 



^ It produces a small berrj', of very pleasant taste, which when ripe 

 is eaten as fruit. 



