2 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
Lapland rhododendron, many kinds of saxifrages, cinquefoil, 
crowfoot, a willow-herb, a lousewort, the narrow-leaved arnica 
and other flowering plants for a time infuse variety into the 
brownish-grey landscape, giving it quite a gay appearance 
with the many brightly-coloured blossoms. During a couple 
of weeks in the short summer the natives may even have the 
advantage of gathering crow-berries (Empetrum nigrum), 
which grow in great abundance almost everywhere, just as 
they do in boreal America and Europe. 'The bilberry and 
cowberry are also noticeable, but they are less common and 
do not seem to be used by the natives, nor is the cloudberry, 
whose fruit rarely ripens. All these are well-known American 
and European plants. The most valuable vegetable, which is 
largely used for food, is a tall angelica. It sometimes attains 
a height of six feet in favourable localities. 
During early Tertiary times many species of conifers and 
several of our common deciduous oaks, poplars, walnuts, 
maples, lindens, magnolias and beeches flourished in Green¬ 
land. Many of the same trees also lived in Iceland, Spits¬ 
bergen, Grinnell Land, boreal North America and the New 
Siberian islands. It is evident that the climate all round 
the Arctic Ocean must have been mild. Many causes have 
been assigned for the change from the former temperate 
climatic conditions to the arctic ones now prevailing in the 
same region. A less restricted circulation of warm ocean 
water into the circumpolar area might, as has been suggested, 
help to bring about such a state. Yet it would not alone be 
sufficient. Sun and light for a longer period than now obtains 
would seem to have been necessary to ripen the wood of the 
trees and bring the fruit to maturity. At any rate, all this 
luxuriant flora must have disappeared from these northern 
regions long before the Ice Age. It is quite possible, and I 
even think it probable, that many of our common arctic and 
alpine plants originated in these remote Tertiary times. I 
cannot adduce any direct geological evidence for such a belief, 
since few of these plants possess properties which would 
enable the remains of their leaves to be preserved in a fossil 
condition. The assumption is founded chiefly on their wide 
geographical distribution. 
As I am dealing mainly with faunistic problems, the 
