PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 315 



was mentioned that in Smith's Sound only fifty-two species were found. 

 Cyperacea was the largest Order. Plants sometimes reached under fa- 

 vourable circumstances as high as -iOOO ft., though more frequently 

 2000 was the limit. The Gmsiope tetracjona arul Papaiwr midlcaiUe «ere 

 the hardiest. There was no connection between the present and pre- 

 existing floras of Greenland. The Cryptogamic plants were much less 

 kuoAvn. Already 268 species of Lichens were described from Greenland, 

 though many more were vet to be discovered, as Lauder Lindsay had 

 found upwards of twenty species entirely new to science in his collection 

 (Linn. Trans. 1870). UiiibUlcnria had the effect of giving an aspect to 

 the scenery, but Lecidea had the largest number of species, viz., sixty- 

 three. The Mosses known from Greenland were not many. Prof. Lawson, 

 of Oxford, only found between forty and fifty species in Dr. Brown's 

 collection, though doubtless many more were yet to be discovered. Only 

 twenty-six Hepatlca were yet known from Greenland. Tlie Al(/ft; described, 

 number between forty and fifty, and left room for many new discoveries. 



The Fungi were few and the DiatoraacecB were little known. Prof. 



Dickie remarked with regard to the Algrp, they were abundant not in 

 species but in individuals. DiatomacetB abounded; they largely composed 

 a material obtained from cracks in the ice and resembling bread soaked in 

 water, and they had also been obtained from the stomachs of moUusca. 

 The land flora consisted of plants of the Scandinavian type, and these 



it was well known had the widest range of all plants. Prof. Lawson 



thought that from birds sitting on icebergs there might be a greater 

 deposit upon them ; but the birds chiefly fed on fishes and would not 

 necessarily bring seeds. The plants carried by icebergs would be chiefly 

 Mosses and lower plants : these fall on glaciers from adjacent rocks and ulti- 

 mately reach icebergs. The space examined in Greenland had been very 

 small. The 270 plants chiefly represented a coast flora ; of the vegetation 

 of the interior, nothing was known. The Mosses from Greenland, princi- 

 pally belonging to the genus Bn/um, were all common English forms. 



The collection was probably very imperfect. Prof. Thiselton Dyer said 



that more exact information as to the carrying power of icebergs was 

 nnich to be desired. Darwin stated that they had been known to carry 

 brushwood (' Origin of Species,' 4th edition, p. 432), but he had never 



been able to ascertain the authority on which this statement rested. 



Mr. Birkbeck Nevins had never seen in Hudson's Straits either land- 

 birds. Mosses, or plants upon icebergs. Dr. Brown, in reply, said that 



the transporting power of bergs had been much exaggerated. For 

 flowering plants it was certainly small ; as to Cryptogams it Avas different, 

 since their spores might be carried considerable distances bv the wind. 

 Birds were the chief transporting agents of Arctic plants, all the passerine 



birds of Greenland were birds of passage. Prof. A. Dickson, " Sufo-es- 



tions on Fruit Classification " [printed in full at p. 309], Prof. Dickie 



objected to the treatment of drupes in the paper. The shallow groove in 



the fruits of the Plum, etc., was a very important point. Prof. Balfour 



liked the primary divisions j)roposed. He was cpiite prepared to accept 

 some improvement, but he thought that after all Professor Dickson had 



not reduced the nund)er of names very materially. Prof. Thiselton 



Dyer pointed out that fruit classifications had to be judged from two 

 points of view. Writers on structural botany naturally desired a symme- 

 trical classification ; on the other, systematists would not use a cninbrous 



