1898-1902. No. 16.] FLOW. PLANTS AND FERNS OF N.-W. GREENLAND. 47 



but it comes a little nearer to that of Ellesmereland than to that of 

 N. E. Greenland. On the other hand, it is also connected with that of 

 Danish West Greenland, and if a border-line between a Greenland and 

 an american flora is to be drawn, we must let it follow Smith Sound 

 and its northern continuation and not make such a deflection as to 

 include Ellesmereland, as HOOKER (App. Nares) has done. The almost 

 entire absence, in the Ellesmereland flora, of species that might have 

 come from Greenland, entirely prohibits its consideration as greenlandic. 

 The only species which may be of eastern origin are Taraxacum 

 phymatocarpum, Aira flexuosa, and further Melandrium triflorum, 

 if that plant is not erroneously reported from Grinnell Land, as I think 

 it is, and perhaps also Agropyrum violaceum. All these, however, are 

 of a far too sporadic appearance to give any greenlandic character to 

 the flora; whereas, on the other hand, the similarity to the flora of the 

 other American Islands is strongly marked. 



I think it best with this to finish the sketch of the connections of 

 the North-Western Greenland flora at present. I am fully aware that 

 it is very incomplete; and I would accentuate the fact that it is by no 

 means to be considered as a definite treatment, but only as a preliminary 

 notice to an examination into the relations and history of the whole arctic 

 american flora, which I hope some time to have an opportunity of 

 finishing. I have also abstained from quoting here the different works 

 in which the history of the Greenland flora is discussed. Perhaps in 

 the mean time also the revision of the american collections may be 

 made, which, as I have above pointed out, is highly desirable. For 

 my own part, I must undertake a thorough revision of all the material 

 from Arctic America in the London collections, so as to be able to 

 make up lists of distribution for each species, and flora lists for each 

 island or group islands in the Archipelago as well as for different parts 

 of the arctic shore, before I feel myself justified in approaching nearer 

 to the phyto-geographical questions, the solution of which I look upon 

 as the principal object of my contributions to the knowledge of the 

 arctic american and Greenland flora and vegetation. 



Lund, Sweden, November 1908. 



