338 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
preservation of their delicate leaves demonstrate conclusively that 
they have not undergone transportation from afar. The same applies 
to Archxopteris fimbriata. The beds of coal, the clay with rootlets, 
and the very nature of the plants themselves, all point to the same 
conclusion, namely, that we have here a flora which flourished in part 
on the very spot where it is now found. 
As I have already pointed out in my description of the Devonian 
flora of Ellesmere Land, one arrives at the same conclusions here ab, 
and it is unnecessary to enter into further details. 
In the Arctic regions, culm deposits, yielding fossil plants, are 
known from ee from the northeast of Greenland,? and 
probably from the south of Melville Island, in the Arctic Archipelago 
of America. 
We will here concern ourselves only with Spitsbergen, although it 
may be mentioned in passing that the flora of the culm discovered 
by the Danish expedition to Northeast Greenland, in latitude 
81° north, consists of nearly the same species as that of Spitsbergen. 
The latter flora has been observed in many localities up to 79° of 
latitude. It is characterized by the presence of Stigmaria, with 
appendicular organs radiating in all directions, still in continuity, and 
penetrating the clay beneath. We are thus able, in several places, to 
observe the presence of Stigmaria in situ, which furnishes undeniable 
evidence of the fact that the plants lived in the place where we now 
find them. The stems of Lepidodendron found in the same place have 
a diameter of at least 40 cm. It would be superfluous to give other 
examples, for one can scarcely doubt that the plants of the culm have 
flourished in the very place in which they are now found, or in its 
vicinity. 
On the other hand, the observations which relate to the Triassic 
plants of Spitsbergen and eastern Greenland are somewhat different. 
The latter ones belong to the Rhetic Series and include several species 
of Pterophyllum, Podozamites, Cladophlebis,? etc. In Spitsbergen one 
finds them as far north as 78°. Neither there nor in Kastern Green- 
land, where one meets with them between the 70th and 71st parallel, 
are they associated with beds of coal, but the manner in which they 
occur in Greenland indicates that in no case have they traveled from 
very distant localities. One has not with certainty observed any 
marine petrifactions associated with the plants, but it has not yet 
been clearly determined whether the Triassic beds with fossil plants 
of Spitsbergen are of marine or of freshwater origin. 
1A. G. Nathorst, “Zur Paliozoischen Flora der Arctischen Zone:”’ Kongl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 
vol. 26, No. 4; Stockholm, 1894. : 
2Td., ‘Contributions to the Carboniferous Flora of Northeastern Greenland:’’ Meddelelser om Gronland, 
vol. 43; Copenhagen, 1911. 
3.N. Hartz, “Planteforsteninger fra Cap Stewart i Ostgrénland:” Meddelelser om Grénland, vol. 19; 
Copenhagen, 1896. 
