THE KERGUELEN ISLES 
233 
Studer, one of the members of the Gazelle Expedition, 
“is not one of those on which rich nature has poured 
out her horn of plenty and in which the eye of the 
traveller is enchained by the luxuriance of natural beauty. 
It lies, then, a rigid desert hardly clothed with its 
scanty vegetation and washed by the waves of a bound¬ 
less ocean. The rugged crags with which it rises out 
of the sea have an inhospitable look even from afar.” 
The vegetation and the peculiar growths which char¬ 
acterize the flora have become more accurately known 
of late, through the Gazelle Expedition and the English 
expedition of the seventies. The plant world here has an 
Antarctic stamp. Side by side with endemic species, 
evidently related to the South American flora, occur 
others which are natives of Terra del Euego. Of pha¬ 
nerogams there are at present known 21 species, dis¬ 
tributed among 18 genera; their flowering season begins 
in October. 
On the whole the soil is bare; it is only where the 
valleys are sheltered from the west winds that beds of 
vegetation are formed, but these never rise to any height. 
Trees are entirely wanting. 
The most singular plant, one mentioned in nearly all 
works of travel, is the Kerguelen cabbage [Pringlea anti- 
scorbutica)^ a Crucifer, which occurs also in Prince Edward 
Island, the Crozet Isles and Heard Island. The dense 
turf-like cushions of Azorella selago recall our Alpine 
Silene acaulis^ but the bright flowers are wanting. One 
is glad to make use of them in travelling, in order to 
get over the marshy ground with dry feet. 
A species of grass {Festuca Cookii)^ one of the Com- 
positae with yellow flowers (Cotula phtmosd) and Calli- 
triche verna form extensive patches of vegetation. On 
the heights a species of pink (ColobanthiLS kergttelensis) 
grows on stony soil; and among grasses Agrostis antarc- 
tica lives as high up as 1000 ft. In the upper valleys. 
