Flowering Piants and Ferns from North-Western Greenland. 23 



In the following (pp. 24 — 27) I give in tabular form a list of 

 all the Flowering Piants and Ferns hitlierto known from North-Green- 

 land and their distribution within this region. 



By North-Greenland I understand the coast from 

 Melville Bay on the west coast around the north coast to 

 the southern limit ofGermania Land on the east coast; rough ly 

 speaking it is Greenland north of 76° N. Lat. The delimination 

 on the west coast is a quite natural one, that on the east coast less so. 



Our knowledge of the vascular piants of this region is based on 

 records found in scattered papers. The whole literature before 1908 

 is admirably presented by Simmons (1909) as mentioned above, and I 

 need only quote his paper with regard to the older records. The records 

 from the Peary Expeditions have been published by P. A. Rydberg 

 (1911 — 12), while the investigations of Mr. W. E. Ekblaw, biologist 

 to the Mac Milian Expedition, still are unpublished with the exception 

 of a very popular note (Ekblaw 1919). 



The many collections made by the diflerent Danish expeditions 

 have been worked out and published by me in a series of papers enu- 

 merated in the list of literature. In these papers I have also quoted 

 the few other contributions to our knowledge of the flora of the region 

 in question. 



The thoroughness of the investigations of the different parts of 

 this long stretch of coast is rather uneven. Beginning with the west 

 coast, the area of Cape York and Wolstenholme Sound is compara- 

 tively well explored (see Nathorst 1884; Ostenfeld 1905; Ekblaw 

 1919; Ostenfeld 19232), while the Inglefield Gulf and Murchison 

 Sound is less so (Ostenfeld 19233, and the present paper). Inglefield 

 Land again belongs to the better investigated parts (Simmons 1909; 

 Rydberg 1911 — 12; the present paper). North of the Humboldt Gla- 

 cier we know very little of the flora (the few records are brought together 

 in Simmons 1909, and some additions are found in the present paper), 

 until we reach the north coast which is really the best known part owing 

 to the indefatiguable eflorts of my late friend, the Swedish botanist 

 Dr. Thorild Wulff (Ostenfeld 19234). His investigations stop at 

 Low Point (83°6' N. Lat., 45° W. Long.) on the Peary Land, and from 

 that point eastwards and southwards we know very little for a long 

 stretch. Captain I. P. Koch on the Denmark Expedition brought home 

 a few piants from his winter sledge-journey and on the Ist Thule Ex- 

 pedition Mr. P. Freuchen collected a fair number of piants in the 

 Danmark Fjord region and on the land west of Independence Fjord 

 (Ostenfeld 1915); still liere is much more to be done. On the east 

 coast south of the Independence Fjord we have a thoroughly explored 

 part, viz. Germania Land, with scattered records from the coast north 

 of it (Ostenfeld and Lundager 1910). 



