DR. HOOKER ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 



273 



Altogether there are absent in Greenland upwards of 230 Arctic Eurojiean species, 

 which are all of them American plants. The most curious feature of this list is the absence 

 throughout Greenland of the genera Spircea, Senecio, Astragalus, Trifolium, Fhaca, 

 Oxytropis, Androsace, Aster, Myosotis, Rosa, Sides, TJilaspi, Sisymbrium, Geranium, &c., 

 and of such ubiquitous arctic species as Fragaria vesca, Caltha p)alustris *, Barbarea 

 ' prcBCOx. It is remarkable that Astragalinece are also absent from Spitzbergen and 

 Iceland. 



Iceland possesses 432 species / 97r )' ^-i^o^ioSt which I find about 120 Arctic 



European plants that do not enter Greenland ; whereas only 50 of the European plants that 

 inhabit Greenland are absent in Iceland. The more remarkable desiderata of Iceland are 

 Astragalinece, Anemone, Aconitum, JBraya, Ttirritis, Artemisia, and Androsace ; Alope- 

 eurus alpinus, Luzula arcuata, Hierochloe alpina, Rubus cliamceomorus, Cassiopeia tetra- 

 gona, Arnica montana, Antennaria dioica, and Chrysosplenium alterni^olimn. On the 

 other hand, Iceland contains of arctic genera absent in Greenland ; Caltha (one of the most 

 common plants about Icelandic dwellings), Cakile, Geranium, Trifoliiim, Spircea, Senecio, 

 and Orchis. 



But perhaps the most remarkable fact of all connected with the Greenland flora is that 

 its southern and temperate districts, which present a coast of 400 miles, extending south 

 to lat. 60° N.L., do not add more than 74 species to its flora, and these are almost unex- 

 ceptionably Arctic European plants ; and inasmuch as these additional species increase 

 the proportion of Monocotyledons to Dicotyledons of the whole flora, Greenland as a 

 whole is botanically more arctic in vegetation than Arctic Greenland alone is ! 



The only American forms which Temperate Greenland adds to its flora are, Ranun- 

 ctdus CymbalatHce, Pyrus Americana, a very trifling variety of the Eiu'opean Aucuparia, 

 Viola Muhlenbergii, a mere variety of V. canina, Arenaria Grcenlandica,a plant elscAvhere 



* This is the more remarkable because it forms a conspicuous feature iu Iceland, and is a frequent native of all the 

 Arctic American coasts and islands. 



