142 CARL SKOTTSBERG 



While there are numerous peculiar cryptogams, not one of the 

 higher plants is endemic except the subspecies Auslro-Georgiae 

 Bitter of Acaena adscendens Vahl. It seems hardly possible that 

 the higher flora survived the Glacial Epoch; it must have reached 

 this isolated island in Postglacial time, originating from the 

 Magellan Lands, where all the species in question are at home. 

 Other islands may, of course, have received part of their flora 

 in the same manner. Naturally, it lies' at hand to interpret in 

 this way the distribution of such species as range over the whole 

 Subantarctic America, having additional stations in the "New 

 Zealand region — or the reverse — and such as belong to the truly 

 circumpolar group. I can come to no other conclusion than 

 that the present distribution of the organic world in the austral 

 region is due to a combination of old wanderings, the extinction 

 of certain species during the Ice Age, the survival of others, 

 and finally transoceanic migrations, which, if they ever took 

 place, are still going on. 



