n K 



^V 



TION OF 



.« O I L 





R E x\I ARKS 



O N 



T H E 



iTOcks, wliere 



juft begun her great work, in producing 



vegetable bodies, and in forming a thin coat of foil, on th 



tops of barren cliffs ; and fo fparing 



flie of thefe her 



pr 



fe 



its, that no more than two plants would vegetate he 

 a grafs fDaSfylis glofnerata) and the other a kind of bu 



^utforba.) 



fS. 



J 



To TiERRA DEL FuEGo, the ncxt land to the Weflward, I will 

 )in Staten-Land on account of the great fimilarity they bear to 

 each other, in the general face of the country. In the cavities and 

 crevices of the huge piles of rocks forming thefe lands, where a 

 little moifture is preferved by its fituation, and where from the 

 continued fri(ftion of the loofe pieces of recks, wailied and hurried 

 down the ileep Tides of the rocky maffes, a few minute particles, 

 form a kind of fand 5 there in the ftagnant water gradually fpring 

 up, a few algaceous plants from feeds carried thither on the feet. 



.'' 



plumage, and bills of birds: thefe plants form at the end of 

 each feafon a few atoins of mould, which yearly increafes : the 

 birds, the fea, or the wind carries from a neighbouring ifle, 



I 



the feeds of fome of the moffy plants to this little mould, and 

 they vegetate in it during the proper feafon. Though thefe plants 



H 



be not abfolute moffes, they are however nearly related to them in 

 their habit: we reckon among them the IxiA pumila-, a new plant 



* 



which we called Don at i a, a fmall Melanthium, a minute 



6 



OXALIS 



t 



) 



