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 
dificult 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 ınuch 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 »zmerous 
endemic types, some, as for example the genus Skottsdergia, 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, » » gem » » ; 
Lichkens 58,» >» TA 2A 3 » 
As far as I am able to understand, the liverworts have not been treated with 
the same critical discrimination as the mosses. 
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