188 MR. А. D. COTTON ОМ CRYPTOGAMS 
When Mrs. Vallentin was about to return to the Falkland Islands in 1909, 
it was suggested to her that the cryptogamic flora would well repay inves- 
tigation. Nothing of importance had been added to the Kew collections 
since the magnificent series collected by Hooker in 1842 and described in the 
* Flora Antarctica,’ and, though our knowledge of the lower plants had since 
then largely increased, scarcely a paper in which the cryptogams of the 
Falkland Islands were included had appeared. Mrs. Vallentin readily 
assented. Ап account of her collections of marine alge, lichens, and fungi 
is set forth below, the mosses and hepatics being dealt with by Mr. Wright 
in a separate рарег. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The present paper is divided into three main sections, dealing with the 
marine alge, lichens, and fungi respectively. So far as the purely systematic 
work is concerned, each section is complete in itself, but in preparing the 
historical sketch, and in considering the geographical relationships of the 
flora, it was more convenient to treat all the cellular cryptogams together. 
These two subjects, therefore, and also some floristic notes, are dealt 
with in a special section, before the general systematic account, entitled 
“The Cryptogamie Flora.” 
In the three sections referred to, not only are Mrs. Vallentin’s plants 
enumerated, but also, as far as possible, all previous records. Each section 
therefore forms a complete list of the known flora of the group in question. 
With regard to the alge, the value of the list is increased by a considerable 
amount of critical work which it has been possible to include. In the case 
of the lichens, time did not permit of research of this kind, hence most 
of the older records have been accepted without question ; and in the third 
group—the fungi—there was little previous work to revise. To make the 
series complete, a list has been compiled of the fresh-water algæ known from 
the islands. 
1. Mrs. VALLENTIN’S COLLECTIONS. 
The collections made by Mrs. Vallentin in 1909-1911 are entirely from 
the western islands, an area of the Falklands which, so far as cryptogamic 
botany is concerned, had been practically unexplored. Of the three groups 
of plants dealt with in the present paper, the marine alge figure most largely, 
some 400 herbarium specimens having been mounted. The lichens follow ; 
these, being dried without pressure and packed in boxes, arrived in good 
condition and, being accompanied by coloured drawings, form excellent 
material for museum or exhibition purposes. But it was to the fungus 
flora, hitherto almost unknown, that Mrs. Vallentin paid special attention. 
Some fifty species were collected. In the case of the Agarics, great care was 
taken and coloured drawings accompanied the spirit or formalin material 
