Notes on Recent Literature . 
188 
NOTES ON RECENT LITERATURE. 
AN EXTINCT ANTARCTIC FLORA. 
I N 1904 Prof. Nathorst 1 published a preliminary note on a 
collection of Jurassic plants obtained by Dr. J. G. Andersson in 
lat. 63 n 15' S., long. 57° W., in the course of a visit to Graham 
Land by Nordenskjold’s Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901-3). 
Attention was drawn to the close resemblance of the plants as a 
whole to the Middle Jurassic Flora of East Yorkshire. A detailed 
description of the Graham Land plants has now been published by 
Dr. T. G. Halle 2 , to whom Prof. Nathorst entrusted the work of 
interpreting these exceptionally interesting palasobotanical records. 
Prior to Anderson’s discovery of the Jurassic flora, Capt. Larsen 
had collected some pieces of petrified wood on Seymour Island 
(lat. 64° 20' S.), and from this locality the Swedish expedition 
obtained several Tertiary plants and a single coniferous twig of 
Cretaceous age resembling Sequoia fastigiata (Sternb.). The 
Tertiary plants were described by Dusdn in 1908 3 , and an account 
of the coniferous woods has been published by Dr. Gothan 4 . 
Members of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition found some fossil 
wood and recorded the occurrence of a seam of coal in lat. 85° S. 
The Graham Land plants were collected at Hope Bay in a dark 
slaty rock, capped by volcanic tuffs, which also afforded a few 
imperfectly preserved bivalves believed to be freshwater species. 
Dr. Halle prefaces the descriptive part of his paper by some 
interesting remarks on the principles of classification or nomen¬ 
clature of fossil plants, and states that he has “ acted on the 
conviction that it is a lesser evil to keep forms separated which are 
identical than to identify such as are distinct.” It is, on the other 
hand, arguable that as it is a sound general principle “ to keep the 
mind open when there is no sufficient warrant for closing it ” ; so 
in the case of fossils, if there are no satisfactory reasons for 
separating forms which bear a close resemblance to one another, 
it is wiser to use specific names in a liberal sense. The real 
difficulty is that in dealing with more or less fragmentary remains 
of vegetative organs we lack adequate data on which to base 
conclusions as to the range of specific variation, and whatever 
guiding principle is adopted the student cannot as a rule achieve 
more than a provisional result. In one of his letters Darwin 
describes, in terms which will appeal to all who have attempted to 
determine impressions of fossil plants, the state of mind induced 
by his systematic work on Cirripedes—“ After describing a set of 
forms as distinct species, tearing up my MS. and making them one 
species, tearing that up and making them separate, and then 
' Cornpt. Rend., June 6th, 1904. 
* “The Mesozoic Flora of Graham Island.” Wiss. Ergebnisse der 
Schwedischen Siidpolar-Expedition, 1901-1903. Bd. Ill, Lief. 14, Stockholm, 
1913. 
3 “ Ueber die Tertiare Flora der Seymour-Insel.” Ibid., Bd. Ill, Lief. 3, 
1908. 
4 “ Die fossiler Holzer von der Seymour-Insel.” 
1908. 
Ibid., Bd. Ill, Lief. 8 
