The Flora of Greenland and its Origin. 13 



These evidences and the ciicumstance that so very 

 many species occur high up in the mountains^, seem to 

 me to make it probable, that the hardiest part of the 

 Greenland flora may have lived through the period of 

 the maximum glaciation in the country itself. It is im- 

 possible to decide exactly the number of species, any 

 more than what species we are dealing with, but they 

 must first and foremost be looked for among the high- 

 arctic and the widely distributed arctic species and I 

 suggest that the number of such glacial species in 

 Greenland a mounts to about 6 0. But the problem can 

 only be dealt with in its general aspects, not numerically, and 

 it only comes to play a small part in the understanding of 

 the origin of the Greenland flora, the more so, as it is 

 more difficult to explain the immigration into Greenland 

 of the less hardy species, which, besides, are the most 

 numerous. In the subsequent attempt at unravelling the 

 problem of the origin of the Greenland flora I have 

 consequently been obliged partly to ignore the part played 

 by this glacial (or pre-glacial) element. 



IV. Piants from the Days of the Norse Colonisation. 



It is a well-known faet that the ancient Norsemen had 

 two fairly large and flourishing colonies in the southern 

 part of West Greenland. This colonisation lasted between 

 400 and 500 years (from A. D. 985 — or 986 — to beyond 

 the middle of the 15th century). Investigations of the ruins 

 of the old settlements have shown, especially through the 

 works of Daniel Bruun, that the larger, southern terrilory 

 (Eystri byggd) eminaced the area from the southern 



^ See the records of altitude by L. Kolderup Rosenvinge, Medd. 

 Grønl. III, 3, 1892. 



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