KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 50. N:0 3- 



Notes 011 the liistory of botaiiical exploratioii. 



Save for some notes on the Falkland flora by Bougainville (1767 — 68) we knew 

 iiothing until after the visit there of Adiniral de Freycinet. On board his corvette 

 »Uranie» was M. Charles Gaudichaud, who had made extensive collections before they 

 arrived at the Falklands, where the ship was wrecked in Berkeley Soiind. Gaudichaud 

 managed to save a good proportion of his collections, and when he had dried and prepared 

 the plants as well as possible, he set out to survey the vegetation ronnd Port Louis, 

 It is characteristic of the monotony of the flora that, although he covered only a 

 very small area, the main stock of higlier plants Avas collected by him. Shortly after 

 his visit Admiral Duperrey, onboard the corvette ^La Coquille», anchored in Port 

 Louis. With him was the famous explorer J. Dumont d'Urville, who managed to 

 complete our knowledge of the vegetation; in his flora we find good descriptions of 

 the general physiognomy, and he was fortunate enough to discover the meagre iklpine 

 flora (on Mt Simon, c. 500 m, called Chätellux by d'Urville). In 1834 Darwin 

 visited the Falklands and made observations also of the plant life. The species collected 

 by him are included in »Flora Antarctica>, the famous work of Sir J. D. Hooker. 

 Here we find the first critical and complete study of the entire flora, phanerogams 

 as well as crj^ptogams, and innumerable observations bearing upon plant geography 

 and physiognomy. But still the Western parts of the archipelago remained less 

 known, even after the author's first visit to the islands in 1902 (see Introduction). 

 One year after, Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill published a report on some plants collected 

 by Mr. R. Vallentin in 1901 — 1902, a paper that contained, however, very little 

 of interest. 



In 1904 Mr. Selim Birger was sent out to Port Stanley-, where he stayed a 

 fortnight in order to arrange the collections left by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition 

 on its second start for the south, whence the ship was never to return. He not only 

 duly performed his task, but also found time to make a study of the vegetation 

 round Port Stanley, and pubhshed his results in 1906. He described the principal 

 plant associations, Avliich at that time were practically unknown. In 1907 I had 

 finished my report, but, because of my absence from Sweden, its publication was 

 delayed until 1909. According to Prof. L. Diels (Ref. in Engler's Jahrbiicher, 1911), 

 it contains »einige Ergänzungen» to Birger's paper — truly a poor result, and no 



