THE ARCTIC FAUNA. 163 



Europe, it is of great importance to determine the 

 nature and the time of duration of these land- 

 connections. The Greenland flora is a very in- 

 structive one in helping us to understand many 

 of the problems connected with the origin of the 

 European plants and animals. To judge from the 

 remarks of Professor James Geikie and Mr. Clement 

 Reid, no flowering plants could have existed in 

 the British Islands during the height of the Glacial 

 period, and one would suppose that the cold in Green- 

 land at that time must have been far more intense 

 than in England. If no flowering plants could exist 

 in the latter country, then very surely none could in 

 Greenland, where the climate was of necessity by far 

 more rigorous. It will be a surprise, therefore, to 

 those who are acquainted only with Professor Geikie's 

 views of the nature of the Glacial period, that two of 

 the most eminent Swedish botanists, who have made 

 a special study of the flora of Greenland, have come 

 to the conclusion that a survival of flowering plants 

 has taken place in Greenland itself from pre-glacial 

 times. According to Professor Nathorst (p. 200), 

 only a few plants could have survived the Glacial 

 period in Greenland. The species now peculiar to 

 that country may perhaps, he thinks, be the remnants 

 of those which existed in pre-glacial times. Mr. 

 Warming, on the other hand, is of opinion that the 

 main mass of Greenland's present flora survived the 

 Glacial period there (p. 403), and that the remainder 

 was carried from Europe and North America by 



