338 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



in the Lapland and Finland floras ; and, owing to the temperature 

 of the Gulf Stream, which washes its coasts, Lapland is by far the 

 richest province in the arctic regions. The mean annual tempera- 

 ture at the polar circle, where it cuts the coast-line, is about 37°, 

 and the June and September temperatures throughout Lapland 

 are 40° and 37° respectively; thus rendering the climate favour- 

 able both to flowering and fruiting. Spitzbergen belongs to this 

 flora, as do Nova Zembla and the arctic countries west of the 

 river Obi, which forms its eastern boundary ; for the Ural 

 Mountains do not limit the vegetation, any more than do the 

 Rocky Mountains in America. Gmelin observed more than a 

 century ago that the river Obi in lower latitudes indicates the 

 transition longitude from the European to the Asiatic flora. 



Even in this small area, however, there are two floras, correspond- 

 ing to the Arctic Norwegian and Arctic Russian. The latter, com- 

 mencing at the White Sea, though comparatively excessively poor 

 in species, contains nearly twenty that are not Lapponian, includ- 

 ing Braya rosea, Dianthus alpinus, D. Seguieri, Spir<<<i chamccdri- 

 folia, Saxifraga hieraciifolia, JETeracleum Sibiricum, Ligularia 

 Sibirica, Ptarmica alplna, G'entiana verna, Pleurogyne r<>t<<f</. 

 and Larix Sibirica. 



There are further several Scandinavian plants which cross the 

 arctic circle on the east shores of the White Sea, but do not do so 

 in Lapland, as Aihamanta Libanotis, Chrysanthemum Leucanthe- 

 mum. Bidcns tripartita, and others. 



Iceland and Greenland also botanically belong to the Arctic 

 Laplaud province, but I have here excluded both: the former 

 because it lies to the south of the arctic circle ; the latter because 

 both its magnitude, position, and other circumstances, require that 

 it should be treated of separately. 



Ac far as I can ascertain, 616 species (Monocotyledons, 183; 

 Diocotyledons, 433 z= 1 : 2-3) enter the arctic circle in this region, 

 of which 70 advance into Spitzbergen ; but no phaenogamic plant 

 is found in Ross's Islet, which lies to the north of Spitsbergen. 

 The proportion of genera to species 266 : 616=1 : 2-3. Of these 

 Arctic European plants, 453 cross the Alps or Pyrenees to the 

 Mediterranean basin, a few occur on the mountains of Tropical 

 Africa, (including Luzula campestris and Deschampsia coespltosa), 

 and 23 are found in South Africa. 



No fewer than 264 species do not enter the arctic circle in any 

 other longitude, and 184 are almost exclusively natives of the 



