160 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



dense ; and by the time the plant has gained the diameter of a foot, 

 it is quite smooth and convex on the surface. The solitary root has 

 evidently become insufficient for the wants of the mass of individuals, 

 which are nourished by fibrous radicles, proceeding from below the 

 leaves, and deriving nutriment from the quantity of vegetable matter 

 which the decayed foliage of the lower part of the stems and older 

 branches affords." 



The Falkland Island tea-plant is a little species of mjrrtle, 

 the stems of which, thickly covered with small rounded 

 glossy leaves, creep over the surface of the ground, and has 

 derived its name from having been frequently used as a 

 substitute for tea by sealers who have visited the Islands. 

 Its flowers are of a pinkish -white tint, and the fruit 

 which succeeds them possesses an agreeable sweetish taste. 

 The Almond-flower, so called from the delicious fragrance 

 of its pretty white blossoms, which are succeeded by d^rk 

 purple berries, belongs to a genus generally referred to the 

 order Liliacece. In the Falkland Islands, I, as a rule, found 

 it clustering in crevices of rock ; but in the western part of 

 the Strait it principally occurs half-buried in moss at the base 

 of the trees. 



Another plant which I noticed on this occasion was a fern, 

 the Lomaria Boryana, which, though extremely abundant in 

 the wooded region of the Strait, does not occur in Eastern 

 Patagonia. It is a fact worth noting, as regards this species, 

 that while in the western part of the Strait . it invariably de- 

 velopes a short stem, from one to two feet high, in the Falk- 

 lands it appears to be as invariably destitute of one. In the 

 gardens of the settlement I observed a species of Veronica 

 demssata, as weU as examples of the famous Tussac-grass, 

 once abundantly distributed around the greater part of the 

 coast of the islands ; but now, for the most part, restricted to 

 various small islets and projecting headlands, where it can 



