The Flora of Greenland and its Origin. 31 



land polar current. Drapa repens is not found nearer than 

 Novaya Zemlya; the olhers are found in arctic Europe 

 (including the islands to the north). 



VIII. North Greenland (North of 76 N. Lat.). 



That part of Greenland which lies north of abt. 76°N. 

 Lat. forms, esj)ecia!ly as regards the West Coast, a section 

 with a character of its own. I call this part North Green- 

 land, and it includes the North Coast District (VIII), 

 with the adjacent districts on the West Coast (W. VII.) 

 and on the East Coast (E. VIL). In a previous paper 

 (Ostenfeld 1923) I have considered in more detail the 

 flora of this part of Greenland, which is the poorest 

 of all as regards number of species, and the one which 

 offers the severest conditions for plant life. We find here 

 in all 125 species, of which 77 are found on the north 

 coast itself, the poor flora of which is well known, thanks 

 to the careful coUections made by the late Dr. Th. Wulff. 



The paucity of species is due to the faet that quite a 

 large number both from the West and East Coast stop at 

 the barriers formed by the inland ice, the hig glaciers of 

 which run right out into the sea at 76° — 75° N. Lat. On 

 the other hånd, there are 8 species not found elsewhere 

 in Greenland. These are naturally high-arctic species, and 

 must be supposed to have immigrated from the west, via 

 EUesmere Land. Two of them, Miiniartia Rossii and Braija 

 Thorild-Wulffii, have found their way northward round 

 Greenland and down the East Coast to abt. 76° N. Lat. The 

 remaining 6 do not go further than the North Coast, these 

 are: Hesperis Pallasii, Raniinciihis Sabinei, Taraxacum hyparc- 

 ticum, T. pumiliim, Pedicularis arctica and P. capitata. Of 

 these, the two Pedicularis species have only managed to 



I 



