Flowering Plaiits and Ferns from North-Western Greenland. 39 



north when crossing over to Inglefield Land, namely: Minuarlia Rossii, 

 Hesperis PaUasii, Ranunculiis Sabinei, Taraxacum hyparticum and 

 T. pumiliiui, which all reached at least as far as the north coast; and 

 Pedicularis arctica and P. capitata which hitherto have not come farther 

 than Inglefield Land itself. 



Some only went south, and several of the western species now 

 not occurring as far north as North -Greenland must have arrived 

 by the Smith Sound way and later have been existinct in North- 

 Greenland. Amongst those still living in North -Greenland only 

 two^) western piants did not go north also, namely Potentilla Vahliana 

 and Arabis Hookeri. None of them occur in Eastern Greenland. 



The remaining species of western origin went both north and south 

 in Greenland and reached also the eastern coast. As typical examples 

 may be mentioned Dryopteris fragrans^ Deschampsia arctica and D. 

 piimila, Tofieldia coccinea, Lesqiierella arctica^ Potentilla Pedersenii^ 

 Saxijraga tricuspidata and Erigeron compositiis^ none of which have been 

 found in Arctic Europe. On the other hånd such species as Saxijraga 

 flagellaris and S. hirculiis^ Pleuropogon Sabinei and Ranunculiis affinis 

 have really a circumpolar, although rather scattered distribution, 

 but tliey surely came into Greenland as immigrants from the west, 

 although they occur also on arctic European islands and in the arctic 

 regions of Eurasia. 



Summary: It appears from these few remarks that I consider 

 the flora of North - Greenland as partly surviving from 

 preglacial times somewhere in Greenland, and partly as 

 immigrated after the ice-age, and then, with a few excep- 

 tions, immigrated from the west. 



A few notes on the supposed means of dis persal of the species 

 of the flora of North-Greenland may be added. 



As mentioned above some species are more or less halophytic and are 

 most probably dispersed by means of the sea-currents; but their number 

 is very limitcd. Of the 125 species at most only the following (13) may 

 be taken into this category, viz.: Carex glareosa, C. inciirva, C. salina 

 subspathacea, 4 species of Puccinellia, Arenaria ciliata{?), Honckenya 

 peploides, Stellaria humifusa, Cochlearia off. groenlandica, Mertensia 

 maritima and Armeria vulgaris sibirica. But it is a remarkable faet 

 that several species which in temperate regions are strictly litoral in 

 their distribution, in arctic regions also occur inland and up in the 

 mountains, e. g. Carex incurra, Cochlearia officinalis and Armeria viil- 



^) Or three, if \ve take Arenaria ciliata norvegica into account. 



