IGG A. E. POJISILD. 



through tho thirkost soles. Towards noon it is niostly doad cahn and 

 tho air toni|)(>ratiin^ inay rise as liigh as 2o" (]. The sur|)his water oi' 

 sj)rinu: time has iu>w all cvajiorati'd. The soil has been baked hard as 

 briek and is netted all ovi'r witii fine sun-cracks. The botanist not familiar 

 Nvith the local flora woidd hardly expect to find any piants here: still 

 there are a few — the association of the arctic "desert" — hardly more 

 than 15 — 20, mostly xerophilous. Here is a Calarnagrostis purpurascens 

 and there a Carex nardina or a Festiica ovina. Xow and then a prostrate 

 Salix glauca which diiring a century perhaps has developed a few crooked 

 branches. During a snowless winter long ago the frost killed tlir iikisI 

 protruding branches among which a handfiil of organic matter has 

 accumulated on which grows either a Carex rupestris or a Cerastium 

 alpinum. ¥ot the most part there are only Cruciferæ and Compositæ; 

 Lesquerella with countless fruiting stems whidi in .lune and .Iiily l>i';ii' 

 clusters of bright yellow flowers which rij)en theii- secds in August. 

 Braya purpurascens, Arabis arenicola and Draba inagellanica subsp. 

 cinerea are all very insignificaiit wlien not in flower, while the erect 

 stems of Artemisia and Erigeron compositus render them more con- 

 spicuous. 



The vegetation of Atanikerdluk affords a striking cnntrast to the 

 poor 'Fjældmark" of Påtut; probably, as suggested by Berggren 

 (2, p. 889), this is due to the influence of the basalt. 



In a small pond on the peninsula I collected some aquatie piants: 

 Potamogeton filiformis, Raniinculiis conjervoides, Hippuris vulgaris and 

 at the horders dense growths of Eriophora and Carices together with 

 the rare Calamagrostis neglecta. In the thin débris on the bottom I saw 

 some dense, green dumps which on closer examination turned out to 

 be Heleocharis aciciilaris f. siibmersa. As neither Hartz nor Nathorst 

 (13) mention Heleocharis, a species forming conspicuous masses in 1921; 

 it is possibly a recent immigrant. Near the summit of the peninsula I 

 found the white-flowered (liamaenerium latijolium mentioned by Nat- 

 horst 1. c. p. 18. 



On the mainland several fertile slopes almost resembled the "Urteli" 

 80 well known from south Disko, characterized by broadleaved herba- 

 ceous vegetation as Poa alpina, Carex Macloviana, scirpoidea, alpina, 

 Viscaria, Thalictrum, Sibbaldia, Polentilla alpestris, Veronica alpina and 

 saxalilis, Antennaria glabrala and intermedia, Arnica and a inosl puzzling 

 Polygonum viviparum with a paniculate inflorescence. 



The vegetation of Sarqaq has been investigated by several bota- 

 nists and is therefore well kudwu. It presented many interesting features 

 as the rock is gneissic and thus affords a good basis for a comparison 

 of the flora with that on the rest of the Nugssuaq peninsula. 



The most striking feature was of course the closed vegetation of 



