THE PROBLEMS OF ANTARCTIC PLANT LIFE. 7 



It has been suggested that the conspicuous absence of driftwood on Antarctic 

 shores shows that there is little likelihood of wave-carried seeds being stranded. 1 The 

 contrast with the shores of some parts of the Arctic regions is certainly great in this 

 respect. Numerous stretches of the coasts of Spitsbergen have almost the appearance 

 of timber-yards with their acres of timber-stacked beaches. During eight months at 

 the South Orkneys we found only a single small piece of driftwood. But this absence 

 of driftwood can be explained on two grounds : firstly, to currents sweeping past rather 

 than striking the shores of Antarctica, except perhaps the north-west of Graham Land 

 and the South Shetlands ; and, secondly, to an absence of driftwood in the waters of 

 the Southern Ocean. 



Most of the Arctic driftwood is brought down by the Siberian rivers and the 

 Mackenzie River in flood. A large amount is thus swept into a confined sea. For the 

 Southern Ocean there are no such sources of supply, while the little timber that is 

 swept into the sea is negligible in that vast extent of water. Nor do I think that seeds 

 and spores brought on driftwood and wreckage to Antarctic coasts would stand any 

 chance of stranding on a locus favourable for growth, even supposing they had survived 

 the voyage, and that is most unlikely. 



It is therefore not by reason of their isolation alone that the south polar regions 

 have next to no phanerogamic vegetation, but because they are unsuited in one way or 

 another to support it. If such a modest biological station, as I have advocated above, 

 should be instituted, it would be a matter of extreme interest to attempt to cultivate 

 on certain of the mossy oases various species of hardy Arctic plants, such as Pa/paver 

 radicaium, Ranunculus sulphureus, Cerastium alpinum, Saxifraga oppositifoha, etc. 

 etc., which all prosper and produce seed in Spitsbergen. 2 



Dr Skottsberg, of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, considers that the formidable 

 Antarctic winds must be another unfavourable condition for higher plant life. 3 While 

 fully admitting the strength of the winds that sweep over certain localities the greater 

 part of the year, I do not think that they could have an inimical influence on any 

 possible vegetation, partly because there are always certain sheltered spots, but largely 

 because the Antarctic summer is a relatively calm period, while the winds of winter 

 could of course have no prejudicial influence through the covering of snow. 



' Polar Exploration, W. S. Bruce, London, 1910, p. 92. 



2 On my return from the Antarctic in 1904 I attempted to make such an experiment by sending to the Argentine 

 Meteorological Station at the South Orkneys a supply of seeds of 22 Arctic species of phanerogams, with a 

 request to have them planted in a certain spot which I chose as suitable during my stay at Scotia Bay in 1903. I 

 understand that all the seeds that were planted failed to sprout, but the absence of a biologist on the spot may have 

 militated against the success of the experiment. The seeds sent were all of Arctic species, and it may be as well to 

 publish the complete list, which is as follows -.Papaver radicatum, Rottb. ; Draba alpina, L. ; D. hirta, L., f. rupestns, 

 R. Br. ; UoMearia officinalis, L., var. 0, Vahl ; Vesicaria eretica, Poir. ; Silene acaulis, L. ; Cerastium alpinum, L. ; 

 Potentilla nivea, L. ; Alchemilla alpina, L. ; Saxifraga oppositifolia, L. ; S. nivalis, L. ; S. rivula.ris, L. ; S. hypnoides, 

 L. ; Rhodiola rosea, L. ; Eriijeron alpinum, L., var. grandiflorum, Eahl. ; Hieracium alpinum, L. ; Vaccinium 

 uliainosum, L. ; Ardostaphylos uva-ursi, Spreng. ; Armeria pubescens, L. ; Oxyria rcniformis, Hook. ; 0. elatior, R. Br. ; 

 Luzula spicata, Desv. 



3 "On the Zonal Distribution of South Atlantic and Antarctic Vegetation," Carl Skottsberg, Geog. Journ. 



Dec. 1904. 



