368 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



have been recorded from the South Orkneys. Of the fifteen mosses Rhacomitrium 

 laniiginosum (Hedw.), Brid., is recorded by Mr H. N. Dixon for the first time from the 

 Antarctic in the collections of the R.R.S. ' Discovery II ' (see Appendix II, p. 380). No 

 Hepatics are known from the South Orkneys though several have been found in the 

 Graham Land region. 



The chief cause of the relative poverty of the flora is the climate, which as we have 

 seen is an unusually rigorous one and more characteristic of a higher southern latitude. 



With Rudmose Brown^ I am inclined to think that Weddell's grass, the only record of 

 a flowering plant at the South Orkneys, was the olive-green Usnea melaxaiitha, a widely 

 distributed lichen which grows luxuriantly at Cape Dundas and elsewhere throughout 

 the group up to heights of a thousand feet at least. It covers the rocky ground for acres 

 with a close shaggy growth, which from a distance at any rate may readily be mistaken 

 for grass. Dumont D'Urville,^ however, whose scientific observations appear to have 

 been recorded with commendable restraint, was not so misled when off the north- 

 eastern corner of Laurie Island in February 1838. On the rocky coast not very far from 

 Cape Dundas he observed considerable patches of green vegetation which he said " doit 

 appartenir a la famille des lichens, peut-etre a V Usnea melanoxatitha" . Rudmose Brown 

 suggests the further possibility that Weddell's grass, having been casually introduced 

 perhaps by the wind, may have succumbed in a short time to the severity of the climate 

 or been trampled out of existence by the penguins that frequent the cape ; but at the 

 same time he points out that since Cape Dundas lies in the extreme east of the group, 

 it is therefore the least likely place for wind-borne seeds to be deposited in a region where 

 the prevailing winds are westerly. 



Note on Kelp. Kelp has been said to exist at the South Orkneys, but whether it is 

 actually Macrocystis pyrifera or another large weed of similar habit and external cha- 

 racters, is uncertain. D'Urville^ saw " paquets d'un Fucus" floating about ofl^ the north- 

 western corner of Coronation Island in February 1838 which he described as approach- 

 ing "la forme des Laminaria pyrifera, mais dont les vesicules sont axillaires et plus 

 petites au moins de moitie que celles de I'espece que je viens de nommer"; Larsen* 

 states that he passed much drifting kelp close to the north coast of Laurie Island in 

 November 1892. Rudmose Brown, who collected widely on Laurie Island in 1903-4, 

 found no attached or floating kelp, and none was observed by us during the survey 

 of January 1933. Among the Scotia's material, however, there was a fragment of a 

 weed, picked up near the surface in Scotia Bay. This was first identified as Lessoiiia 

 grandifolia,^ a giant kelp-like weed from Cape Adare and Coulman Island, whose 



1 Brown, R. N. Rudmose, and Darbishire, O. V., 1912, The Botany of the South Orkneys, Scientific 

 Results of the 'Scotia' 1902-4, iii, p. 24. 



2 D'Urville, D., 1842, he. cit., p. 131. ^ Ibid., pp. 135-6. 

 * See Aagaard, B., 1930, Fangst og Forskning i Sydishavet, I, p. 46 (Oslo). 



^ See Gepp, A., and Gepp, E. S., 1912, Marine Algae of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 

 Scientific Results of the ' Scotia' 1902-4, in, pp. 75-7, plate i, figs. 6-7, and also Gepp, A., and Gepp, E. S., 

 1907, National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-4, Marine Algae, I — Phaeophyceae and Florideae, pp. i, 3-7, 

 plates i-ii. 



