DR. HOOKER ON SOME COLLECTIONS OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 115 



both as important materials towards our knowledge of the geogra- 

 phical distribution of plants within the Polar Circle, and as records 

 of the eminent services rendered to this branch of science, by the 

 exertions of the officers of those expeditions, which have contri- 

 buted so materially to the naval glory of the first half of the 

 nineteenth century. 



It is not my intention to do more here than place on record an 

 account of the collections made by Dr. Lyall in Sir E. Belcher's 

 expedition, by Dr. Anderson and Herr Miertsching in Sir E. 

 M'Clure's, and by Mr. Eae after his detachment from Sir John 

 Eichardson's party on an exploring expedition from Great Bear 

 Lake to the mouth of the Coppermine Eiver, and to the south 

 shores of Victoria Land. I restrict myself thus, because I hope at 

 some future period to have the honour of laying before this Society 

 a full account of the vegetation of the Polar Circle, embracing the 

 discoveries of all our Arctic voyagers, as well as those of the Scan- 

 dinavian and Eussian naturalists in Greenland, North Europe, and 

 Siberia. This, however, is a work demanding much time and 

 study ; my main object in attempting it being to trace the extra 

 Polar distribution of the Polar species, to determine, if pos- 

 sible, the effects of climate upon them during various phases of 

 their development, and to indicate some causes which may have 

 contributed to determine their present distribution. 



1. Dr. Lyall's plants, collected during Sir E. Belcher's expedi- 

 tion in 1852-4, in Disco and Whale Pish Islands, and Cape York 

 (coast of Greenland) ; and in Lancaster Sound, Beechey Island, 

 Wellington Channel, and Northumberland Sound, amongst the 

 Polar islands. 



Lat. 68° to 77° N. 

 Long. 50° to 95° W. 



2. Dr. Anderson's and Herr Miertsching' s collections from 

 Banks' Land and the adjacent west coast of Prince of Wales 

 Land, and Cape Bathurst, on the mainland to the southward of 

 Banks' Land. 



Lat. 70° to 74° N. 

 Long. 115° to 128° W. 



3. Mr. Eae's collections, the chief interest of which is that they 

 connect the latter with the vegetation of the mainland to the 

 south-east, and with the southern shores of Prince Albert's Land, 

 portions of which are called Victoria Land and Wollaston Land. 



Lat. 66° to 69° N. 

 Long. 112° to 117° W. 



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