HISTORICAL SURVEY OF LICHENOLOGICAL WORK IN THE ANTARCTIC 7 



Land, and South Victoria Land. An unusually large collection of cr\'ptogams was made by trained 

 biologists. The lichens were subsequently studied by Dodge and Baker, who (1938) identified eighty- 

 nine species, of which no less than eighty-four were new to science. This remarkable degree of endemism 

 (even allowing for reduced forms which may eventually prove to belong to already known species) may 

 seem surprising, but it must be remembered that most of the collections were made in hitherto unvisited 

 regions. The types are preserved at the Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, U.S.A. 



The British Graham Land Expedition of 1934-7 worked along the western coast of Graham Land 

 south to Alexander Land, which was found to be much more extensive than was previously supposed. 

 Large and fine collections of lichens were made, and particular attention was paid to their ecological 

 relationships. The material has been presented to the British Museum, and has been used in the com- 

 pilation of the present paper. 



In 1938 a German Antarctic Expedition, under the command of Capt. Ritscher, left Germany for the 

 Antarctic on the ' Schwabenland '. A staff of scientists was carried, and biological collections were made 

 on the Antarctic continent around the zero meridian, i.e. in the Queen Maud Land sector. The expe- 

 dition returned to Germany in April 1939. A preliminary account of the scientific results was published 

 in 1939 in the Annalen der Hydrographie und maritimen Meteorologie (according to the Polar Record, 

 IV, no. 31, 1946). 



The third American Antarctic Expedition under Adm. Byrd spent the years 1 939-41 in the exploration 

 of the regions between Marie Byrd Land and Alexander Land. Two bases were established, a western 

 near Little America in the Bay of Whales, and an eastern on Stonington Island in Marguerite Bay, west 

 Graham Land. Several sledging parties traversed the Graham Land peninsula ; one of them followed 

 the east coast of the peninsula southwards to lat. 70° 51'. Another party reached the Eternity Range, 

 discovered by Lincoln Ellsworth. King George VI Sound was found to separate Alexander I Land 

 completely from the mainland. Botanical collections were made from both the western and the eastern 

 bases. Much of the material collected at the eastern base, however, had to be abandoned owing to the 

 emergency evacuation of the personnel by air, but a representative selection of botanical specimens was 

 taken. Lichens were also collected in the Melchior Islands in Dallmann Bay. The material is being 

 studied by Prof. Carroll W. Dodge. 



Finally, the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey,^ sponsored by the British Colonial Office, 

 established three bases in the Graham Land Sector in 1944-5: {a) at Deception Island, South 

 Shetlands ; {b) at Port Lockroy, Wiencke Island (in the Palmer Archipelago) ; and (c) at Hope Bay on the 

 Trinity Peninsula, a locality already visited in 1902 by the Swedish Expedition. Intensive collecting 

 and ecological work was done around the bases, and in 1945 two sledge journeys were made from the 

 Hope Bay base down the east coast of the peninsula to extend the survey of the Swedish Expedition. 

 Numerous botanical collections were made during these journeys, in many cases from islands and head- 

 lands discovered for the first time, and as yet unnamed. For this reason I will refer to these botanical 

 localities provisionally by station numbers, indicated on the accompanying map, and listed as follows: 



St. 24. Headland in approx. lat. 63° 33', long. 57° 22'. 



St. 25. Headland in approx. lat. 63° 38', long. 57° 34'. 



St. 26. Headland in approx. lat. 63° 40', long. 57° 48'. 



St. 27. Island in lat. 63° 37', long. 57° 19'. 



St. 28. Island in lat. 63° 40', long. 57° 28'. 



St. 29. Island in lat. 63° 40', long. 57° 35'. 



St. 30. Island in lat. 63° 40', long. 57° 40'. 



St. 31. Islet in approx. lat. 63° 43', long. 57° 37'. 



1 Until the end of 1945 the Survey was known as 'Operation Tabarin'. 



