Introduction. 



all the arctic lands, Greenland is by far the largest, 

 extending from Cape Farewell, in lat. 59 46', to Cape Morris Jesup, 

 lat. 83 39', and Cape Bridgeman, in lat. 83 35', and from Cape 

 Alexander, in long. W. fr. Gr. 75 30', to the east coast of Shannon 

 Island, in long. W. 17 30'. Its area may very roughly be reckoned 

 as 600,000 square miles. From a botanical point of view, however, only 

 a comparatively small part of its wide expanse is of any interest, the 

 whole interior being covered up by the inland ice, the widest ice sheet 

 of the Northern Hemisphere, which sends out numerous arms of different 

 size to the coast, thus separating the habitable land into many parts, 

 that may, however, be naturally grouped as follows: 



Danish West Greenland, from Cape Farewell up to the southern 

 side of Melville Bay about lat. 74. In the south, it is not sharply 

 defined from the coastland of the east coast, but to the north it is 

 separated from the land beyond Melville Bay by the many and mighty 

 glaciers that, except for some coast mountains and nunataks, alone 

 surround the interior of the bay, forming a very natural and well- 

 defined demarcation-line between the southern and northern coast districts 

 with their, in many respects, different floras and types of vegetation. 



North Western Greenland, beginning at the north side of Melville 

 Bay in about lat. 76 and stretching up to the northernmost point, 

 where it merges into the east coast, may be looked upon as being 

 formed of two differents parts, the southern or Smith Sound region up 

 to about lat. 79, and the northern, from about 80 northwards. The 

 boundary between them is formed by the enormous Humboldt Glacier, 

 forming the coast-line for nearly one degree of latitude - - a barrier 

 which is not easily surmounted by any plant migration. 



Eastern Greenland is not so easily separated into natural divisions. 

 A tolerably well defined line, however, may be drawn about lat. 73 30', 



1 



