PREFACE 



AjOOD many years ago British Arctic Ex- 

 plorers, on their way to the Polar Sea, and 

 other travellers first brought to Europe collections 

 of fossil plants from Disko Island and from various 

 localities on the adjacent coasts of Greenland. In 

 more recent years large collections, made by Danish 

 and Swedish Geologists, have been acquired by the 

 museums of Copenhagen and Stockholm. 



To students of the vegetation of the past fossil 

 plants from Greenland rocks are of exceptional 

 interest, mainly because of the evidence they afford 

 of climatic conditions very different from those 

 within the Arctic Circle at the present day. An 

 examination of the Copenhagen and Stockholm 

 collections inspired me with a desire to visit Green- 

 land in order to obtain as representative a set of 

 fossils as possible for the British Museum and for 

 Cambridge. Having learnt from my friend Pro- 

 fessor Ostenfeld (of Copenhagen) that English 

 visitors would be welcome at the Danish Arctic 

 Station on Disko Island, I applied through the 

 British Foreign Office for the necessary permission 

 to visit the country, and, with the help of a grant 

 from the Royal Society, supplemented by a grant 

 from the Cambridge University Worts Travelling 

 Fund, I was at length able to gratify my wish. 

 Had it not been for the assistance generously 

 given to me by Professor Ostenfeld my desire 



