1898 -1902. No. 16.] FLOW. PLANTS AND FERNS OF N.-VV. GREENLAND. 1 7 



contain I do not yet know, but plants from an even still higher latitude 

 may exist among them). Only a few plants could, however, be discerned 

 at Lockwood Island in May. 



How much may be done, even in a short excursion, by a trained 

 botanist, especially one who is well aquainted beforehand with arctic 

 plants, is shown by the visit of NATHORST to Ivsugigsok near Cape York, 

 where he went with the "Sofia" in 1883, while his commander, NORDEN- 

 SKIOLD, was on his inland ice trip from the Aulaitsivik Fjord in Danish 

 Greenland. Notwithstanding that it is an open coast locality, he was 

 able, after an excursion of only a few hours' duration, to make up a 

 list of fifty-eight species. In comparison it may be mentioned, that the 

 whole list for the wide district of Inglefield Gulf, contains only seventy- 

 three species; and that none of the different collectors has there obtained 

 a greater number than 46. It may, however, be taken for granted, that 

 the flora at Inglefield Gulf, must be richer than in any other part of 

 N. W. Greenland, and will yield, in the most favorable spots, even more 

 than the Foulke Fjord list (see p. 20). 



Two lists of plants, collected during expeditions sent as relief parties 

 to PEARY during his work in N. W. Greenland, have been published. 

 The first of these is based upon specimens collected in 1891 by Dr. 

 BURK at Cape York and in M'Cormick Bay, Inglefield Gulf, and in 1892 

 by Mr. MEEHAN who has treated these collections in a paper in the 

 Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia, 1893 (Contr. Greenl.). MEEHAN 

 enumerates a good many localities where he has botanized, but from 

 several of them not a single plant is mentioned in his accounts of dis- 

 tribution which, moreover, are very imperfect. Another weak point of 

 MEEHAN'S paper is, that he has been entirely unable to identify his 

 plants as is shown by HOLM, who has given a long list of corrections 

 (Contr. Fl. Greenl.). Mr. HOLM has, however, only had opportunities of 

 controlling the determination of some of the plants, represented in the 

 National Herbarium of Washington ; and several more of MEEHAN'S 

 statements seem to be in a great need of corroboration or correction. 



Another list of plants collected in the PEARY auxiliary expedition 

 of 1894 by Dr. WETHERILL is made up at Harvard University. The 

 names of those who are answerable for the determinations, seem to imply 

 that they are reliable, in general at least; and, as the collections seem 

 to have been made with care and without any intermixture of plants 

 from different localities, this list is of great value and interest, the more 

 so as it contains rather a large number of additions to the flora of our 



area. The flora of Cape York especially is enriched with several in- 



2 



