The Vegetation in South Georgia. 



By 



CARL SKOTTSBERG. 



With Map and 6 plates. 



I. History of Botanical Exploration. 



Save for some vague descriptions of the vegetation, in general terms, we knew 

 nothing of South Georgian botany until after the visit of the German Expedition to 

 Royal Bay in 1882 — 83. The botanist, Dr. H. Will, described the vegetation with 

 many interesting details, and through the papers of ENGLER, Prantl, C. MÜLLER, 

 J. Müller and Reinsch the flora became tolerably well known. Of vascular plants 

 very few have been found later that did not appear in the first list. The crypto- 

 gams proved to be so rich in species that more could be expected; by the collec- 

 tions of the author their number has been more than doubled. 



In 1902 the island was visited by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, whose 

 members stayed in Cumberland Bay 22.4 — 15.6, where I could study many different 

 places, and was also able to pay a visit to Royal Bay. The working field of the 

 German station was very limited in comparison with ours. Royal Bay certainly does 

 not give an exact idea of what South Georgia may produce in the way of plant 

 associations. There is only a small strip of low land and even this spot is exposed 

 to the full force of the gales, thus giving only a very faint impression of one of the 

 most important of plant associations, the tundra-meadow. Contrary to what I had 

 expected beforehand, my studies gave results beyond those obtained by Dr. Will; 

 for this, however, I must not take the credit but attribute it to the fact that Cumber- 

 land Bay offers some of the most favoured places in the whole island. When we 

 returned back to the Falkland Islands I wrote a preliminary report, published in the 

 Geogr. Journ. for 1902 and also (accompanied by a plate) in »Botaniska Notiser». In 

 1905 I gave a list of the vascular plants (in these reports, Vol. IV, Nr. 3) but never 

 found time to take up to the question of the plant associations again. The crypto- 

 gams were described together with the other collections made during the voyage. 



I — 121S50 Schwedische Südpolar-Expedition igoi — IÇOJ. 



