92 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CLUB 



February 8, 1910 



This meeting was held at the American Museum of Natural 

 History. Dr. William Mansfield occupied the chair. Seventeen 

 people were present. 



The minutes of the last meeting, January 26, were read and 

 approved. 



The special committee for securing funds for the Tuesday even- 

 ing lectures made a report. 



Resignations were read and accepted from Miss Nellie P. Pie- 

 wins and Mrs, Jane Condit Robison. The scientific paper of the 

 evening was by Dr. P. A. Rydberg on " Flora of the Arctic 

 Regions." 



It was well illustrated by numerous mounted specimens col- 

 lected on the later Peary expeditions. 



The following abstract has been prepared by Dr. Rydberg : 



" The two collections exhibited were made by Dr. Goodsell in 

 1908-9 and by Dr. Wolf in 1905-6, partly on Greenland, partly 

 on EUesmere Land, and partly in Labrador. As the last-men- 

 tioned locality belongs to the subarctic rather than the arctic 

 regions, the plants from there were merely shown, but no descrip- 

 tion of the flora was given. It contained one new species of 

 umbellifers of which Dr. Rose of the U. S. National Museum has 

 furnished a description. 



" A general description of Greenland and EUesmere Land was 

 given. Greenland is an immense ice-covered plateau, rising on 

 the east side to 10,000-11,000 feet and on the west side to 

 5,400 feet. Only a narrow strip along the coast and the small 

 islands outside become bare in the summer, and here the meager 

 flora is found. EUesmere Land is lower. There is no con- 

 tinuous inland ice, although smaller icefields, snow-covered 

 mountains, and glaciers are found. 



"In accounts of the flora of Greenland and EUesmere Land, one 

 seldom finds any references to the altitude at which certain plants 

 grow. There seems to be no difference between the flora at sea- 

 level and that at an altitude of two thousand feet ; the luxuriance 



