DISCOVERY 



149 



this kind of action could not really achieve the end 

 sought by it, because, whatever extra money govern- 

 ment authorities spend on government work during 

 depressions, must, in one way or another, be withdrawn 

 from the funds which private people would otherwise 

 have spent on private w^ork ; so that, though a differ- 

 ence would be made to the type of work done in 

 depressions, no difference would be made to its aggre- 

 gate quantity. This argument, however, fails to take 

 account of the elasticity of our banking machinery. 

 That elasticity makes it possible from time to time 

 for the money expenditures of one portion of the 

 community to be substantially increased without those 

 of the other portions being correspondingly diminished. 

 It also fails to take account of the fact that, if a 

 depression is allowed to run its normal course , govern- 

 ment authorities will have to expend large sums in 

 the relief of unemployed workpeople, and that, there- 

 fore, those funds are available for setting industry in 

 motion to the extent that expanded industry diminishes 

 the volume of unemployment. There are, of course, 

 important difficulties of detail in the way of using 

 government demand as a kind of balance wheel to 

 offset oscillations of private demand, and it would be 

 a mistake to expect too much from it. In principle, 

 however, the policy is a sound one and is not open to 

 objections of a fundamental sort. 



Improvement in the monetary mechanism with the 

 direct object of promoting steadiness in general prices 

 and adjustment of orders on the part of government 

 authorities are the most obvious and most frequently 

 discussed means of increasing the stability of industry 

 There are, however, other means, some of them in 

 the control of individual manufacturers or groups 

 of private consumers, by which a small contribution 

 to the same end might be made. Individual manu- 

 facturers have a certain freedom as to the policy 

 they will adopt about making for stock, and private 

 consumers have the power, just as government authori- 

 ties have, to adjust, in the general interest, the period 

 at which some of their less urgent orders shall be 

 given. We cannot hope, in any event, however 

 strenuously everybody may work for that end, that 

 the trade cycle will be smoothed out altogether. 

 But there is reason to believe that more can be 

 accomplished in this direction than has been accom- 

 plished hitherto. The subject is one that has not yet 

 been fully investigated. It is difficult on the technical 

 side, covers a wide range, and is interwoven with a 

 number of matters that seem at first sight to have no 

 relation to it. But, on the other hand, it has a very 

 direct bearing upon the real welfare of the com- 

 munity ; and students of it may reasonably hope 

 that their work, if successful, will yield fruit as well as 

 light. 



Plant Life in the 

 Antarctic 



By R. N. Rudmose Brown, D.Sc. 



The prevalent belief that Antarctic regions are entirely 

 devoid of vegetation is far from the truth. It arises 

 partly from the meagre collections from the far south 

 until recent ^-ears, and partly from the contrast with 

 the comparatively rich vegetation of North Polar 

 regions. It is true that the surface of the great 

 Antarctic ice- cap which covers nearly the whole 

 of the continent is devoid of plant or animal life, but 

 around the edges of the continent where ice-free rocks 

 appear, and on the islands which fringe it in places, 

 vegetation is far from negligible. 



The region which experiences true Antarctic con- 

 ditions is bounded approximately by the parallel of 

 lat. 60° S. To the north of this parallel lie the sub- 

 antarctic regions comprising such island groups as 

 South Georgia, probably the South Sandwich group, 

 and certainly Kerguelen. Within the Antarctic region 

 lies the whole of the Antarctic continent and such island 

 groups as the South Shetlands and the South Orkneys. 

 The Antarctic Circle is neither a geographical nor a 

 climatic frontier, and it is entirely fallacious to regard 

 it as the boundary of Antarctic regions. 



The Antarctic flora, thus defined, has been examined 

 in various places, and its general aspect is well known, 

 even if subsequent exploration will undoubtedly add 

 a few species of cryptogams. Its poverty com- 

 pared w^ith the flora of the same latitudes in North Polar 

 regions is striking. While Arctic regions support some 

 400 species of flowering plants, many of which flourish 

 luxuriantly, Antarctic regions support but two, 

 neither of which does more than maintain a precarious 

 hold. These species are a grass Dcschampiia antarctica, 

 and a small caryophyllaceous plant ' Colobanthtis 

 cr.issifolius. The grass was first discovered in the 

 South Shetlands, south of Cape Horn and Drake 

 Strait, over a century ago by J. Eights, the surgeon 

 of a sealing vessel. In recent years it was rediscovered 

 on the west of Graham Land and on adjacent islands by 

 both Belgian and French Antarctic expeditions, between 

 lat. 65° S. and 68° S. It is known also frcm Fuegia, 

 the Falklands, South Georgia, and Kerguelen. The 

 other plant is a comparatively recent discovery, the 

 French Antarctic expedition having found it in several 

 places along with the grass. It, too, must be regarded 

 as a straggler frcm Fuegia, where it is more at heme ; 

 it grows also in the Falklands and South Georgia. 



1 This is the order to which the famihar British plant, the 

 white campion, belongs. 



