PHANEROGAMIC FLORA OF SPITZBERGEN. "NS 
^9. The large number of species common to Spitzbergen and Green- 
land shows that the Spitzbergen flora is most nearly related to that of 
Greenland. 
'$. The flora of the north coast of Spitzbergen (lat. 80° N.) is very 
different from that of the west coast, and is most nearly related to the 
flora of the islands in Lancaster Sound, Barrow’s Strait, and Melville 
Sound (lat. 74° N.), the two having a nearly equal number of species, 
and almost 70 per cent. of them common to both. | 
4. A large number of southern species appear in the flora of the 
west coast, giving ita North European character; but it is nearer the 
arctic flora east of the White Sea than to that west of it. i 
The Spitzbergen group of islands, situated between lat. 16:5?-81? N. 
and long. 9°-22° F., consists of several small and three large islands,— 
Spitzbergen proper, North-East Island, and Stans Foreland. North- 
East Island, is separated from Spitzbergen proper by Hinlopen Strait, 
and is the principal island in the northern part of the Spitzbergen 
group ; Stans Foreland lies furthest to the south-east, and is separated 
from Spitzbergen proper by the Storfjord on the west and Walter Thy- 
men’s Sound on the north. Spitzbergen proper is a mountainous 
island ; -on the west coast the mountains reach a height of 2000-4000 
feet, but on the north and north-east coasts and at Hinlopen Strait only 
1000-2000 feet. Sounds, some miles in length, penetrate Spitzbergen 
proper and North-East Island. 
The interiors of Spitzbergen proper and North-east Tsland are covered 
with immense connected masses of snow and ice, which never melt, and 
which, in the form of splendid glaciers, in some places reach the coast 
and slope into the sea. 
The summer’s heat melts the snow and fits the soil for its scanty 
vegetation only on a narrow strip of land which stretches along the 
coast between the sea and the nearest mountain ridge. The mountains 
seldom rise precipitously from the sea, there is generally such a narrow 
terrace of about one-eighth to half a milein width. Its composition and 
the subfossil whale-bones and moll i he uppermost bed of 
gravel, which is 50 to 150 feet above the sea, show that this ledge isan 
old seashore, and that Spitzbergen is gradually rising above the sea. This 
narrow ledge, of so comparatively recent a geological age, supports the 
great proportion of the vegetation; only a third of the species are 
found on the north coast at a greater height than 300 feet above the 
