20 BOTANICAL RESULTS OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



past. Such a link could only have been made by land connections, and it was probably 

 at the time of the last stages of the former wide northward extension of Antarctica that 

 this deep-seated affinity between these floras must be dated. To name an epoch for 

 this would be rash : possibly these land bridges were available as late as Eocene times. 

 After they were no longer in existence, the floras of the various islands developed 

 each along its own lines, and the endemic species were evolved. The only later addi- 

 tions were by wind and bird transport from Fuegia and from New Zealand. 



A full discussion of the relationships of the floras of these southern islands in their 

 possible bearing on the former distribution of land has great importance, but is out- 

 side the purpose of the present paper. Enough has been said to indicate the nature 

 of the botanical problems awaiting solution in Antarctic and sub-antarctic lands, and 

 while future expeditions will naturally choose their routes largely for oceanographical 

 and geographical reasons, there always will be in any land touched at, or for that matter 

 in any sea, sufficient material of botanical interest to be found. 



The pole-circling islands and the coasts of Antarctica are more likely to be well 

 explored as the importance of the study of the vast southern oceans begins to attract 

 the attention it deserves, and when the day of record-breaking pole-hunts is over, as it 

 soon must be now that Roald Amundsen has won the race. The present Australasian 

 expedition with no pole-reaching ambitions is a welcome sign of the trend of exploration. 



