I. Introduction. 



The part of Greenland whose flora was the last to be investi- 

 gated is the northernmost — as is indeed but natural, 

 this being the most inaccessible portion of that great country. 

 However, thanks to the expeditions of the last decades: the 

 Danmark Expedition, the First and Second Thule Expedi- 

 tions, the Jubilee Expedition, etc, collections of not incon- 

 siderable extent have been brought home from Greenland 

 north of 76° N. Lat. During recent years also, many other 

 parts of the country have been subjected to closer botanical 

 investigation ; in the case of the West Coast, more especially 

 through journeys undertaken by mag. se. M. P. Porsild, 

 Director of the Danish Arctic Station, and his sons. We 

 may then, I think, fairly say that the floristic side of the 

 investigation of Greenland's vegetation has reached a natural 

 conclusion. This applies, however, only to the so-called 

 "higher piants", i. e. phanerogams and pteridophytes. Of 

 these, we can hardly expect any great number of fresh finds 

 in the future. It is otherwise, however, with the cryptogams 

 (apart from the pteridophytes). Their occurrence is but 

 incompletely known, though liere also we have fairly numer- 

 ous and comprehensive works in all sections. The approx- 

 imate number of species for each of these groups is stated 

 as: 600 bryophytes, 300 lichens, 185 marine algæ, 375 fresh- 

 water algæ, 600 diatoms (marine and fresh-water) and 45 

 dinoflagellates (marine and fresh-water); such figures are 



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