496 Sir Henry H. Howorth—Greology of the Arctic Lands. 
to work upon. Speaking of the plants of Shetland, the Faroes, Ice- 
land and Greenland, he says: ‘La migration européenne est évidem- 
ment prédominante.” Hooker’s view was supported by Blytt, who, 
writing in the Journal of Botany for 1887, says: “Even the Green- 
land flora consists principally of Scandinavian plants.” Sir Joseph 
Hooker further concluded “that the existing Scandinavian flora is 
of great antiquity; that previous to the Glacial epoch it was more 
uniformly distributed over the Polar zone than it is now; that 
during the advent of the Glacial period the Scandinavian vegetation 
was driven southwards in every longitude, and even across the 
tropics into the south temperate zone; and that, on the succeeding 
warmth of the present epoch, those species that survived both, 
ascended the mountains of the warmer zones, and also returned 
northwards, accompanied by aborigines of the countries they had 
invaded during their southern migration.” He further says: “If it 
be granted that the Polar area was once occupied by the Scandinavian 
flora, and that the cold of the Glacial epoch did drive this vegetation 
southwards, it is evident that the Greenland individuals, from being 
confined to a peninsula, would be exposed to very different con- 
ditions to those of the great continents. In Greenland many species 
would, as it were, be driven into the sea—that is, exterminated; 
and the survivors would be confined to the southern portion of the 
peninsula, and not being there brought into competition with other 
types, there could be no struggle for life among their progeny, 
and consequently no selection of better adapted varieties. On the 
return of heat these survivors would simply travel northwards, 
unaccompanied by the plants of any other country.” 
The general conclusion of Hooker and others about the affinities 
of the Greenland flora, and the widespread induction based upon it, 
have been recently sharply contested by two Scandinavian botanists. 
In 1880 Joh. Lange, in his “Conspectus Florae Grénlandicae,” 
came to the conclusion that out of 386 species of Greenland plants 
15 are endemic, 40 belong to the Western or American, and 44 to 
the Hastern or European district; that is to say, are otherwise only 
found in those districts ; or, interpreting the facts most favourably to 
the Hastern side, there would be 36 Western as against 42 Hastern— 
a majority of six only in favour of the latter. 
Some years later Warming subjected the botany of Greenland to 
a minute analysis and came virtually to the same opinion as Lange. 
He divides Greenland into two botanical provinces—a birch region 
(R. sub-Alpina) and an Alpine region (R. Alpina). The former 
is limited to the extreme south of Greenland, and is bounded by 
a line from Cape Farewell, 60° North lat. on the Hast coast, to 
about 62° on the west, and contains about 60 species of plants 
not otherwise found in Greenland. The other region includes all 
the rest of the country. His conclusion is, that while the former 
small district contains a considerable number of specially Kuropean 
types, the latter, viz. Greenland proper, contains hardly any ; but 
does contain a number of American ones. The great bulk of the 
plants, however, of Greenland belong neither to Hurope especially 
