Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/380

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338
BOTANY OF
[Chap. XII.
1843
Jan.

Tortula gracilis, indigenous to Europe and Cockburn Island; and Tortula lævipila, found in Europe and the Falklands; two sea-weeds, viz. Desmarestia aculeata, var. media, originally detected in Unalaschka (lat. 55° N.); and Oscillatoria ærugescens? if this latter be identical with the Irish species of that name, it had hitherto been found in one loch in Ireland only: and a lichen (Collema crispum), which is a native of Britain and other parts of Europe, where it generally grows on walls, though occasionally, as in Cockburn Island, on the ground. To this list should be added another lichen, recognised as a Falkland Island and European Parmelia, the specimens of which were unfortunately lost. The remaining two plants are well known sea-weeds, natives of several parts of the southern temperate, and antarctic ocean; viz., Iridæa micans and Adenocystis Lessoni.

"The two most striking vegetable productions of this island are a noble sea-weed, called Sargassum Jacquinotii, and a Lichen. The first of these was not found attached, but floating in the ocean among the ice, by which it was sometimes much mutilated. Though belonging to a highly variable order, it is a perfectly distinct as well as conspicuous species, first discovered at Deception Island, one of the South Shetlands, by the surgeon of H.M.S. Chanticleer, and afterwards by Admiral d'Urville, who collected his specimens nearly in the same latitude. It attains a length of three feet, is flat, and the margin runs out into longish