255 



Lange, in his Conspectus Florae Groenlandicae, enumerates 

 about 400 species of flowering plants, but of course the larger 

 number of these are confined to the southern portion. Simmons, 

 in his Vascular Plants of Ellesmere Land, enumerates 107 phane- 

 rograms. Of these about a dozen are not found in Greenland. 

 There are, however, perhaps a score of species found in northern 

 Greenland not found in Ellesmere Land, and a few have been 

 added since Simmons's publication, so that the North American 

 flora north of latitude 72° may be estimated to about 160 species. 

 Of these about three fifths are circumpolar plants, i. e., plants 

 common to arctic America, Spitzbergen, and Siberia. Of the 

 remaining two fifths, at least half are plants common to arctic 

 America, and the rest divided between truly endemic plants of 

 this region and such as are of European origin, i. e., common to 

 Greenland and Iceland or Spitzbergen. 



The families represented in the flora of Ellesmere Land and that 

 of Greenland north of the Danish colonies {i. e., north of latitude 

 72°) are as follows: 



GRAMINEAE 20 19 ROSACEAE S 7 



Cyperaceae 15 19 Empetraceae I I 



JUNCACEAE 3 6 ONAGRACEAE I I 



Melanthaceae O I Pyrolaceae I I 



Salicaceae 3 6 Ericaceae i 7 



Betulaceae o I Vacciniaceae I 2 



POLYGONACEAE 2 3 DiAPENSIACEAE I I 



PORTULACACEAE O I PRIMULACEAE I O 



Alsinaceae 7 II Polemoniaceae O I 



Caryophyllaceae 3 4 Plumbaginaceae I 2 



Ranunculaceae 6 8 Boraginaceae o i 



Papaveraceae I I Scrophulariaceae 4 6 



Cruciferae 13 17 Campanulaceae 4 I 



CrASSULACEAE O I COMPOSITAE 4 8 



SaXIFRAGACEAE 12 12 CiCHORIACEAE 3 2 



no 151 



Of these there are 44 species reported for northern Greenland 

 and not for Ellesmere Land, and 12 for the latter that are not 

 found in the former. In the two together there are hence 163 

 species reported. The Eskimo settlements of Etah and vicinity, 

 visited by the Peary expeditions, are situated between latitudes 

 76° and 78°, and no plants were collected farther south than 76° 



