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 Archseopteris 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 also, 

 and it is unnecessary to enter into further details. 



In the Arctic regions, culm deposits, yielding fossil plants, are 

 known from Spitsbergen, 1 from the northeast of Greenland, 2 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 Stigrnaria, 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 Stigrnaria 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 Rhsetic Series and include several species 

 of Pterophyllum, Podozamites, Cladophlekis , z etc. In Spitsbergen one 

 finds them as far north as 78°. Neither there nor in Eastern 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. 



i A. G. Nathorst, "Zur Palaozoischen Flora der Arctischen Zone:" Kongl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 

 vol. 26, No. 4; Stockholm, 1894. 



a Id., "Contributions to the Carboniferous Flora of Northeastern Greenland:" Meddelelser om Gronland, 

 vol. 43; Copenhagen, 1911. 



IN. Hartz, " Planteforsteninger fra Cap Stewart i Ostgronland: " Meddelelser om Gronland, vol. 19; 

 Copenhagen, 1896. 



