326 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



the arctic circle is 762 (Monocot. 214; Dicot. 548). In the 

 present state of cryptogenic botany it is impossible to estimate 

 accurately the number of flowerless plants found within the same 

 area, or to define their geographical limits; but the following 

 figures give the best approximate idea I have obtained: — 



Fil.ces 2S Characeje 2 Fungi 200 ? 



Lycopodiacea; . . . . 7 Musci 250 Alga; 100 



Equisetacea; S Hepaticas So Lichenes 250 



Total Cryptogams 925 



" Phasnogams 762 



1687 



Regarded as a whole, the arctic flora is decidedly Scandinavian ; 

 fir Arctic Scandinavia, or Lapland, though a very small tract of 

 land, contains by far the richest arctic flora, amounting to three- 

 fourths of the whole: moreover, upwards of three-fifths of the 

 species, and almost all the genera, of Arctic Asia and America are 

 likewise Lapponian, leaving far too small a percentage of other 

 forms to admit of the Arctic Asiatic and American floras being- 

 ranked as anything more than subdivisions, which I shall here 

 call districts, of one general arctic flora. 



Proceeding eastwards from Baffin's Bay, there is, first, the 

 Greenland district, whose flora is almost exclusively Lapponian, 

 having an extremely slight admixture of American or Asiatic 

 types : this forms the western boundary of the purely European 

 flora. Secondly, the Arctic European district, extending eastward 

 to the Obi river, beyond the Ural range, including Nova Zembla 

 and Spitzbergen ; Greenland would also be included in it, were it 

 not for its large area and geographical position. Thirdly, the 

 transition from the comparatively rich European district to the 

 extremely poor Asiatic one is very gradual ; as is that from the 

 Asiatic to the richer fourth or West American district, which 

 extends from Behring's Straits to the Mackenzie River. Fifthly, 

 the transition from the West to the East American district is 

 even less marked; for the lapse of European and West American 

 species is trifling, and the appearance of East American ones is 

 equally so : the transition in vegetation from this district, again, 

 to that of Greenland is, as I have stated above, comparatively 

 very abrupt. 



The general uniformity of the arctic flora, and the special 

 differences between its subdivisions, may be thus estimated : the 

 arctic Phsenogamic flora consists of 762 species ; of these, 616 



