H. G. SIMMONS. [SEC. ARCT. EXP. FRAM 



is not more than 73. As some of these are rare species, not found in 

 other N. W. Greenland places, it appears that a great many common spe- 

 cies must have been entirely overlooked here. 



From the Carey Islands 5 plants only are noted (Potentilla Vahliana, 

 Saxifraga oppositifolia, Cerastium alpinum, Salix ardica, Catabrosa 

 algida). In all probability, some more may be found there ; but judging 

 from my own experience in some small islets in Jones Sound, about which 

 I shall elsewhere give an account, I am inclined to think that the number 

 of species which have found their way to these small isolated islands, 

 surrounded for the greater part of the year by open water, may be very 

 small. Among species which I think are most likely to be found there, 

 I may mention Cochlaria officinalis and Glyceria distans} growing 

 generally around the gulls' nests in the rookeries. It is, however, to be 

 regretted that WETHERILL, who alone has contributed to the botanical 

 knowledge about these islands, has not published any notes about their 

 vegetation. 



The numbers of species for the localities of KANE are small enough 

 indeed, even Rensselaer Harbor only reaching 23. This may be due 

 partly to the loss of some parts of the collections, partly perhaps to the 

 hard climate of the nearly always ice-bound shore of Kane Basin. The 

 existence of such species as Lesquerella arctica, Hesperis Pallasii, 

 Ranunculus Sabinei, Pedicularis ardica, some of which are only 

 found here, rather induces one to think that the broad stretch of ice-free 

 land here may have allowed the development of a flora, which will at 

 some future time yield many more species. 



Concerning the whole region north of the Humboldt Glacier, there 

 is hardly anything more to be said, than that it is far too imperfectly 

 explored as yet for any inferences to be drawn about the real bulk of 

 its flora. Only 27 species are at present known with certainty from these 

 parts; whereas the number for Grinnell Land, which lies in the same 

 latitude and is only separated from N. W. Greenland by the narrow 

 Kennedy and Robson Channels, has supplied a list of at least 72 vas- 

 cular plants. 



As an appendix to this historical review of the botanical exploration 

 of N. W. Greenland, and in order to facilitate the identification of the 

 different localities mentioned, I have compiled the following list of loca- 

 lities with their approximate place so far as it appears from the maps 

 to which I have access in the reports and journals of the different expe- 

 ditions, as well as from the English sea-chart of Smith Sound, the new 

 Danish map mentioned above, or from lists of determinations of places. 



