XV] 11 PEEFACE 



111 Ferns, Bracken is absent ; but, instead of it, Lomaria 

 alpina completely covers the downs in places. Owing to the 

 frost, like many other things, it becomes a brick-red. 



Noticeable Tjichens are Sticta; Parmelia luguhris; Ramallna 

 scopulorum; and Usnea of shorter growth than in the forest. 



Amongst the Grasses, there are such familiar and widely- 

 distributed forms as Alopecurus alpinus, Plileiun alpmwn, Poa 

 of several species including P. pratensis^ and Avra of several 

 species including A. flexuosa. The Tussock {Dact]jlis coespitosa) 

 is the most remarkable of all. Other Grasses are Arundo pilosa ; 

 Hierochloe magellanica ; Avena leptostacliys ; Agrostis of many 

 species ; Trisetum of several species ; Bromus ; Hordeum ; 

 Triiicum elymus ; and Festuca of many species large and small, 

 growing in paint-brush-like tufts, every head carrying a needle- 

 point of varying degrees of fineness — F. gracilllma being 

 perhaps the finest of all. 



No mention of the wonderful Tussock Grass will suffice 

 without some account of its growth. "To all who know 

 Grasses only in the pastures of England," Sir Joseph Hooker 

 says, " patches of Tussock resemble nothing so much as 

 groves of small low Palm-trees. This similarity arises from the 

 matted roots of the individual plants springing in cylindrical 

 masses, always separated down to the very base, and throwing 

 out a waving head of foliage from each summit. The effect in 

 walking through a large Tussock grove is very singular, from 

 the uniformity in height of these masses, and the narrow spaces 

 left between them, which form an effectual labyrinth ; leaves 

 and sky are all that can be seen overhead, and their curious boles 

 of roots and decayed vegetable matter on both sides, before and 

 behind ; except now and then, where a penguin peeps forth from 

 his hole, or the traveller stumbles over a huge sea-lion, stretched 

 along the ground, blocking up his path. The peculiar mode of 

 growth of this Grass enables it to thrive in pure sand, and near 

 the sea, where it has the benefit of an atmosphere loaded with 

 moisture, of soil enriched by decaying sea-weeds, of manure, 

 which is composed of an abundant supply of animal matter in 



