46 
AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
Dr. J. C4. Andersson, of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, was fortunate enough to 
discover two fossil floras—one of Jurassic age, containing many ferns and conifers; 
the other of late Cretaceous or Early Tertiary date, comprising species of the well-known 
genera Sequoia, Araucaria, Knightia, Drimys, Fcigus, and many others. As I have 
elsewhere remarked, the importance of this discovery can hardly be overestimated, 
and further exploration will probably throw a flood of light on the composition of the 
former vegetation of the Antarctic Continent, and give great aid in working out the 
origin of southern floras generally. Dr. Skottsberg, in his excellent paper on the 
“Relations between the Floras of Subantarctic America and New Zealand” (Plant 
World, vol. 18 (1915), pp. 129 to 142), speaking of Andersson’s discoveries, says: 
With these facts at hand, it becomes evident that there existed an Antarctic Tertiary 
Flora bearing resemblances to the present floras of Subantarctic America, New Zealand 
and Australia, and that the Antarctic Continent may have been a centre from which 
animals and plants wandered north.” Further discussion on this point, however, is 
better deferred until we can consider the relationship between the vegetation of the 
southern portion of South America, the Subantarctic Islands, and the Antarctic 
Continent. 
Let us first turn to the Subantarctic zone. This is most conveniently divided 
into the following sectors :—1. South Georgia. 2. Kerguelen, including the Crozets, 
Marion and Prince Edward Islands, and Heard Island. 3. Macquarie Island. 4. The 
New Zealand Subantarctic Islands, comprising Auckland, Campbell, and Antipodes 
Islands. 5. Fuegia and the Falkland Islands. 
South Georgia lies about 1,000 miles to the eastward of Cape Horn, and about 
750 miles from the nearest portion of the Antarctic Continent. It is of considerable 
size, being ninety-five miles in length, by twenty miles in greatest breadth, but is little 
more than a high mountain range, several of the summits of which exceed 6,000 feet. 
There are extensive snowfields in the interior, and glaciers discharge into all the fiords. 
Evidences of extreme recent glaciation are everywhere conspicuous, and geologists are 
agreed in believing that within a recent period the whole island has been covered with 
a continuous ice-sheet. As will be seen from the meteorological tables given in a 
previous portion of this memoir, the climate is cold, wet and stormy. The mean 
temperature for the year (34-5°) is six degrees lower than that (40-7°) of Macquarie 
Island, and the mean temperature of the winter months (29-8°) is quite nine degrees 
below. Under such conditions, a numerous flora cannot be expected, and it is not 
surprising that although the island has several times been botanically explored, only 
eighteen vascular plants have been detected. 
The flora of South Georgia is thus not much more than half as extensive as that 
of Macquarie Island, which includes thirty-four species. Further than that, Macquarie 
Island has three endemic plants, whereas it can hardly be said that South Georgia 
has one. It is true that Bitter, in his monograph of Accena, has described a sub-species 
