12 CARL SKOTTSBERG, (Schwed. Südpolar-Exp. 



or the Falklands from South Georgia. In his memoir upon Kerguelen Island, Dr. 

 WERTH has discussed the origin of its flora, and the occurrence of types such as 

 Pringlea and Lyallia leads him to dismiss — and quite naturally, I think — the idea 

 that the flora immigrated from the west, from which direction winds and currents 

 come. In general birds are made responsible for transport over great distances, 

 but I give the author right when he remarks that we know little or nothing to 

 prove such bold theories. For Kerguelen, it is not necessary to seize at such an 

 explanation. That island was never fully glaciated as was South Georgia, for it is 

 difficult to understand how a higher plant-world should have existed there during 

 the glacial epoch. And, when considering the comparatively numerous endemic 

 species in Kerguelen, one necessarily comes to the conclusion that, if the conditions 

 during the total glaciation in South Georgia permitted the survival of higher plants, 

 one should at least find some few species indicating a greater age of the flora. 

 As we have seen, this is not the case — all of them point westward, all inhabit the 

 Magellan district. It may seem impossible to show how their seeds passed over 

 the enormous stretch of open water, but I emphasize once more the fact that if 

 after the definite regression of the ice, South Georgia received one single species 

 every hundred years, the flora would be much richer than it is now. 



In my paper quoted above, I pointed out that I only spoke of the vascular 

 plants. Mr CARDOT is right when he says (p. 196) that my theory is not applicable 

 to the mosses, nor perhaps to the other groups; for here we meet with numerous 

 endemic types, some, as for example the genus Skottsbergia, of very peculiar struc- 

 ture, and which must be regarded as belonging to the pre-glacial flora. Probably a 

 number of cryptogams have reached South Georgia even in post-glacial time, for 

 there are many Magellanic species. There are others of circumpolar distribution, 

 some only found in Kerguelen and South Georgia and not a few only in South 

 Georgia and on the Antarctic continent. Thus much speaks in favour of the theory 

 that we have here a branch of the old Antarctic flora, of which we find so many 

 traces outside what is called the Antarctic zone proper, recalling a time when there 

 was a better connexion than now between the different groups of islands — The 

 South Shetlands, The South Orkneys, The South Sandwichs and South Georgia. 



The number of cryptogams (fungi and fresh water algae not included) hitherto 

 recorded from South Georgia, is: 



Mosses 99, of which 46 = 46 % are endemic; 

 Liverworts 36, » s 5 = 1 1 .% » » ; 



Lichens 58, » » 14 = 24 % s > 



As far as I am able to understand, the liverworts have not been treated with 

 the same critical discrimination as the mosses. 



