part 3] fossil plants from the Falkland islands. 313 



13. 0)i a Collection of Fossil Plants from the Falkland 

 Islands. By Prof. Albert Charles Seward, Sc.D., 

 Pres.G.S., F.R.S., and John Walton, MA. (Read Decem- 

 ber 6th, 1922.) 



[Plates XIX-XXIL] 



Prefatory Note. 



In May, 1922, I received from Dr. II. A. Baker, F.G.S.. a collec- 

 tion of Permo-Carboniferous plants from the Falkland Islands 

 which, with the consent of the Colonial Office, was entrusted to 

 me for examination and description. At a later date additional 

 specimens were received, some of which, although unfortunately 

 too imperfectly preserved to be determined, were from rocks classed 

 as Devono-Carboniferous. The Permo-Carboniferous material was 

 collected on George Island and Speedwell Island off the southern 

 extremity of East Falkland, also at North Arm, Bay of Harbours, 

 near the southern extremity of East Falkland ; while others were 

 found at Cygnet Harbour and Egg Harbour on the western coast 

 of Lafonia (the southern peninsula of East Falkland), and at 

 Dos Lomas on the north-western coast. 



In the examination of the fossils I have been assisted by 

 Mr. John Walton, of St. John's College, Cambridge, who is 

 responsible for the description and determination of the fossil 

 wood.— [A.C. S.] 



Introductory. 



Subsequent to Charles Darwin's visits to the Falkland Islands 

 little attention was paid to their geology, until the Archipelago 

 was visited in 1901-1902 by Prof. J. G. Andersson and other 

 members of the Swedish South Polar Expedition. The results 

 then obtained were considerably extended by a second Swedish 

 Expedition in 1907-1908, under the direction of Dr. C. Skottes- 

 berg. Dr. T. G. Halle, of Stockholm, who was a member of that 

 expedition, contributed to the Bulletin of the Geological Institute 

 of the University of Uppsala, in 1911, a very valuable account of 

 the geological structure and history of the Falkland Islands. In 

 a preliminary note on the flora of Graham Land, subsequently 

 described in detail by Dr. Halle, the late Dr. A. G. Natliarst 1 men- 

 tioned the discovery by Dr. J. G. Andersson, in the Falkland 

 Islands, of some fragmentary plant-remains which it was thought 

 might be pieces of Asterocalamites. The fact that Andersson 

 stated that the beds from which the fossils had been obtained 

 were of Devonian age influenced Nathorst in his preference for 

 Asterocalamites over JPhyllotheca or Sclu'zoiiritra, genera which 

 in the character of their stem-casts closely resemble the older 

 genus Asterocalamites. The specimens were shown by Nathorst 



1 Nathorst ("')). Numerals in parentheses refer to the Bibliography, p. 331. 



z2 



