THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 159 



(Callixene marginata). The first of these plants has for a 

 long period attracted the attention of navigators who have 

 touched at the Falklands, and .y^s appearance is so extraor- 

 dinary that a casual observer would be most unlikely to refer 

 it to the order {Umbelliferce) to which it truly belongs* 

 Dr. Hooker remarks that — 



" In whatever portion of this country the voyager may land," " he 

 cannot turn his steps inland without seeing scattered over the ground 

 huge, perfectly hemispherical hillocks of a pale and dirty yellow-green 

 colour, and uniform surface, so hard that one may break the knuckles 

 on them. If the day be warm, a faint aromatic smell is perceived in 

 their neighbourhood, and drops or tears of a viscid white gum flow 

 from various parts of these vegetable hillocks. They stand apart 

 from one another, varying from two to four feet in height, and though 

 often hemispherical, are at times much broader than high, and even 

 eight to ten feet long. The very old ones begin to decay near the ground, 

 where a crumbling away commences all round, and having but a narrow 

 attachment, they resemble immense balls or spheres laid upon the 

 earth. Upon close examination, each mass is found to be herbaceous 

 throughout, the outer coat formed of innumerable little shoots rising to 

 the same height, covered with imbricating leaves, and so densely packed 

 that it is even difficult to cut out a portion with a knife, while the sur- 

 face is of such uniformity that lichens sometimes spread over it, and 

 other plants vegetate on its surface in the occasional holes or decayed 

 places. If at a very early period a young plant of the Bolax be re- 

 moved and examined, the origin of these great holes can be traced ; 

 for each of them, of whatever size, is the product of a single seed, and 

 the result of many, perhaps hundreds of years' growth. In a young 

 state the plant consists of a very long, slender, perpendicular root, like 

 a whip-lash, that penetrates the soil. At its summit are borne two or 

 three small branching stems, each closely covered for its whole length 

 with shooting leaves. As the individual increases in size, the branches 

 divide more and more, radiating regularly from the resting centre, 

 instead of prolonging rapidly ; these send out lateral short shoots from 

 their apices, and in such numbers that the mass is rendered very 



* I learned, in the course of conversation with some of the inhabitants of 

 Stanley, that they believed it to be a kind of fungus ! 



