In
Sheltered Places A Few Other Plants Thrive Among These Mossy Species,
And These At Last Form A Sufficient Quantity Of Soil For The Nutriment
Of Shrubs.
Here we found the species which affords what has been
called Winter's Bark; but in this unfriendly situation it was only a
shrub about ten feet high, crooked and shapeless.
Barren as these
rocks appeared, yet almost every plant which we gathered on them was
new to us, and some species were remarkable for the beauty of their
flowers, or their smell." - G.F.
[2] Mr G.F. has given a pretty minute description of the country
around this sound, and its annual and vegetable productions; but for a
reason afterwards stated by Captain Cook, there seems little
inducement to copy from it. Those who think otherwise, but who,
perhaps, are very few in number, will have recourse to that
gentleman's narrative. - E.
[3] The reader who is not satisfied with the picture now given of
these wretched and disgusting beings, may turn to the abstract of
Bougainville's Voyage, quoted in the preceding volume of this
collection, which surely ought to suffice. - E.
[4] In the cavities and crevices of the huge piles of rocks, forming
Terra del Fuego and Staten-land, so very like each other, where a
little moisture is preserved by its situation, and where from the
continued friction of the loose pieces of rocks, washed and hurried
down the steep sides of the rocky masses, a few minute particles form
a kind of sand; there in the stagnant water gradually spring up a few
algaceous plants from seeds carried thither on the feet, plumage, and
bills of birds; these plants form at the end of each season a few
atoms of mould which yearly increases; the birds, the sea, or the wind
carries from a neighbouring isle, the seeds of some of the mossy
plants to this little mould, and they vegetate in it daring the proper
season. Though these plants be not absolute mosses, they are however
nearly related to them in their habit. We reckon among them the IXIA
pumila; a new plant which we called DONATIA; a small MELANTHIUM; a
minute OXALIS and CALENDULA; another little dioicous plant, called by
us PHYLLACHNE, together with the MNIARUM, (see Forster, Nova Genera
Plantarum). These plants, or the greater part of them, have a peculiar
growth, particularly adapted to these regions, and fit for forming
soil and mould on barren rocks. In proportion as they grow up, they
spread into various stems and branches, which lie as close together as
possible; they spread new seeds, and at last a large spot is covered;
the lowermost fibres, roots, stalks, and leaves, gradually decay and
push forth on the top new verdant leaves: The decaying lower parts
form a kind of peat, or turf, which gradually changes into mould and
soil. The close texture of these plants hinders the moisture below
from evaporating, and thus furnishes nutriment to the vegetation
above, and clothes at last whole hills and isles with a constant
verdure. Among these pumilous plants, some of a greater stature begin
to thrive, without in the least prejudicing the growth of these
creators of mould and soil. Among these plants we reckon a small
ARBUTUS, a diminutive myrtle, a little dandelion, a small creeping
CRASSULA, the common PINGUICULA alpina, a yellow variety of the
VIOLA palustris, the STATICE armeria, or sea pink, a kind of
burnet, the RANUNCULUS lapponicus, the HOLCUS odoratus, the common
celery, with the ARABIS heterophylla. Soon after we observed, in
places that are still covered with the above-mentioned mossy plant, a
new rush (JUNCUS triglumis,) a fine AMELLUS, a most beautiful
scarlet CHELONE, and lastly, even shrubby plants, viz. a scarlet-
flowered shrubby plant of a new genus, which we called EMBOTHRIUM
coccineum; two new kinds of berberis, (BERBERIS ilicifolia et
mitior;) an arbutus with cuspidated leaves (ARBUTUS mucronata;) and
lastly, the tree bearing the winter's bark (DRYMIS winteri,) which,
however, in these rocky barren parts of Terra del Fuego never exceeds
the size of a tolerable shrub; whereas in Success Bay, on a gentle
sloping ground, in a rich and deep soil, it grows to the size of the
largest timber. The falling leaves, the rotting mossy plants, and
various other circumstances, increase the mould and form a deeper
soil, more and more capable of bearing larger plants. Thus they all
enlarge the vegetable system, and rescue new animated parts of the
creation from their inactive chaotic state." - F.
END OF VOLUME FOURTEENTH.
End of A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14, by Robert Kerr
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