nummularia), with a woody stem like our
cranberry and with a sweet berry,--an Empetrum (E. rubrum), like
our heath,--a rush (Juncus grandiflorus), are nearly the only ones
that grow on the swampy surface. These plants, though possessing a
very close general resemblance to the English species of the same
genera, are different. In the more level parts of the country, the
surface of the peat is broken up into little pools of water, which
stand at different heights, and appear as if artificially
excavated. Small streams of water, flowing underground, complete
the disorganisation of the vegetable matter, and consolidate the
whole.
The climate of the southern part of America appears particularly
favourable to the production of peat. In the Falkland Islands
almost every kind of plant, even the coarse grass which covers the
whole surface of the land, becomes converted into this substance:
scarcely any situation checks its growth; some of the beds are as
much as twelve feet thick, and the lower part becomes so solid when
dry, that it will hardly burn. Although every plant lends its aid,
yet in most parts the Astelia is the most efficient. It is rather a
singular circumstance, as being so very different from what occurs
in Europe, that I nowhere saw moss forming by its decay any portion
of the peat in South America.
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