53 



Political and Social Science in place of Dr. F. W. Pennell, who 

 is unable to serve on account of absence in South America. 



Prof. Willard M. Porterfield, a graduate student at Columbia 

 University, was elected to membership. 



Mr. Morten P. Porsild, Director of the Danish Arctic Station 

 on Disko Island, Greenland, presented a valuable communication 

 on "The Flora of Greenland: Its Affinities and Probable 

 Age and Origin." An abstract furnished by the speaker 

 follows : 



At present we know from Greenland 416 species of vascular 

 plants, 608 bryophyta, 717 fungi,, 285 lichens, 181 marine algae, 

 363 fresh water algae, 617 diatoms, and 41 dinoflagellates. In 

 the present remarks the term "flora" means only the vascular 

 plants, the cryptogams of some of the adjacent countries being 

 still too imperfectly known for comparisons. The flora of 

 Greenland was considered by J. D. Hooker (1861 and 1875) to 

 be mainly of Scandinavian origin and the view has been repeated 

 by recent writers, although both Joh. Lange (1880) and Eug. 

 Warming (1888) have raised objections against it. Warming 

 supposed that the main stock of the flora might have survived 

 the Great Ice Age on ice-free mountain peaks, supposed by some 

 geologists never to have been covered by ice, as is indicated by 

 their present rugged surface. 



According to the general distribution of each single species, 

 we may divide the plants in different types: 



Western 



W+E 



Eastern 



Percentages 



III 



9.2 



II 



6.7 



2.3 



I 



Northern 18.2 



^ VI 



3-7 



V 



175 



0.2 



IV 



Widely distri- 

 buted 21.4 



IX 



12 7 



VIII 

 31-4 



16.3 



VII 



Southern 60.4, of 

 which 22 are 

 temperate 



25.6 



55-6 



18.8 



100 — 



