Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

260 TREES PLANTS — BALSAM. grown upon either Falkland, and that the more are planted the better they would grow — assisting and sheltering each other. At first, young plants or trees should have banks of earth raised near them, to break the fury of south-west storms, and the most sheltered situations, with a north-east aspect, should be chosen for a beginning. Anti-scorbutic plants are plentiful in a wild state, such as celery, scurvy-grass, sorrel, &c. ; there are also cranberries,* and what the settlers call strawberries, a small red fruit, growing like the strawberry, but in appearance and taste more like a half -ripe blackberry. I must not omit the ' tea^plant,' made from which I have drank many cups of good tea,-f- and the settlers use it frequently. It has a peculiar effect at first upon some people, which is of no consequence, and soon goes off.;}: This little plant grows like a heath in many parts of the Falk- lands as well as in Tierra del Fuego, and has long been known and used by sealers.^ The large round gum plant ( Hydrocelice gummifere), common in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, is abundantly found, and, when dried, is useful for kindling fires, being extremely combustible. The gum which exudes from its stalks when cut or broken, is called by the settlers ' balsam," and they use it quite fresh for wounds ; at the least it answers the purpose of sticking-plaister. In summer it may be collected in considerable quantities, without injuring the plants, as it then oozes out spontaneously ; even while green, the whole plant is very inflammable. The gauchos, when in the interior of the islands, tear it asunder, set it on fire, and roast their beef before it. Within the stems of the tall sedgy grass, called tussac, is a white sweetish substance, something like the kernel of an unripe nut ; this is often eaten by the set- * One reason for the arrival of flights of geese during April and May- may be, that the cranberries are then ripe, of which they are very fond. t At my own table I have seen it drank by the officers without their detecting the difference : yet the only tea I used at other times was the best that could be obtained at Rio de Janeiro. + U m ciens. ^ It produces a small berrj', of very pleasant taste, which when ripe is eaten as fruit.