OBSERVATIONS ON THE VEGETATION OF THE ANTARCTIC SEA 25 1 



iMcr)' xisitor on Antarctic lands is well acquainted with the con- 

 stant suif on open coasts. When luhhinL; the icefloes a<;ainst the rocks 

 the effect must he \(.m\- injuriously to vej^etation. ( )nl\- the calcareous 

 altare seem to he more or less unaffected by it. 



'I' i dal ohse r \at i o n s were made at our winteistation at .Snow 

 llill during a short period. 1 am i;reall\' indebted to 1 )r. Hodman lor 

 the fi<;ures communicated below. The are howe\er not revised. 



Date 



Tidal obse r \'a t i o n s, made at Snow llill, b''^^' 1902. 

 1) i I 1 c r e n c c s in i'. in. 

 Low Water — Hiuh Water — Low Water — 



61 



75 



94 

 II) 

 140 



143 



The least difterence is 51, the »greatest, 25<S cm. 



The influence of ice. In places where the inland-ice extends 

 down to the edi;e of the sea, no littoral vegetation can exist and even 

 the sublittoral algai easily get injured. Thus it is necessary that the 

 beach during the summertime should be free from ice and snow. Dur- 

 ing the winter a bank of ice and snow covers the strand down to the 

 highwater mark and an > ice-foot > covers at least a part ot the littoral 

 region. Man\^ waterpools and basins are frozen to the bottom. But 

 this by no means prevents the existence of macroscopic algie, partly 

 consisting of annual species, ]:)artly, and no doubt chiefly, of perennial, 

 which thus throughout the winter live frozen in and quite deprived of 

 light. In .\o\embcr 1902 I observed man\' basins at different stages of 

 thawing. By this an abundant melting from the lover surface seems to take 

 place; on some occasions I collected alga,^ imder a vault of ice, from which 

 the water dro])ped down into the basin. The calcareous algj^; especially 

 are able to endure this hard winter-life, but other, much more delicate 

 plants were also collected, though more or less damaged after the capti- 

 \ity. I\.\amples of this are gi\en in the description of the regions. 



rhe drifting ice, sea-ice or icebergs are also of great importance. 

 KjKLL.NLW points out that he helds the drifting ice to be one of most 



