ON THE BOTANY OF THE BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION. 53 



the probability of any species escaping observation is reduced to a 



minimum. 



I may mention here that, with regard to vertical distribution, 

 lichens follow a different law from phanerogams, seldom appearing 

 in any considerable quantity near sea-level, and occurring most 

 abundantly at from five hundred to a thousand feet above it 

 an altitude at which most flowering plants have disappeared- 

 nevertheless some phanerogams, I think, maintain life at a higher 

 elevation than any lichens. On the other hand, mosses have a 

 similar distribution (vertically) with the flowering plants ; yet in 

 that most desolate of regions, along the west shore of Smith Sound 

 worn Cape Louis Napoleon to Cape Baird, lat. 79° 40' to 81° 32', 

 lichens appeared to be quite as scarce as phanerogams, which are 

 here reduced to some fifteen or twenty species. 



An important characteristic in Arctic plant-life is the almost 

 entire absence of seedlings, Kienujia islandica at Disco beiii" the 

 only annual observed ; seeds, however, if ripened elsewhere do 

 germinate under the influence of an Arctic sun, though they will 

 not, I believe, ripen ; hence it is no doubt possible that some plants 

 may have been introduced by currents of air or water, or by the 

 agency of birds or other migratory animals. 



Observations upon these and other conditions of Arctic vegeta- 

 tion were chiefly made in Discovery Bay (where I was stationed for 

 within a few days of a year) , and will be found more fully dealt 

 with under that heading further on. 



I will now give a brief notice of the various stations visited : 

 they may be arranged, with then- latitudes, in the following order 

 ironi south to north ; and for convenience of reference I have 

 assorted them into thirteen districts numerically. Longitudes being 

 comparatively unimportant, I have omitted throughout : 



L Egedesminde, 68° 42' ; Disco, lat. 69° 15' ; Eittenbank, lat. 69° 42 

 II. Proven, lat. 72° 20'. 



III. Upernavik, lat. 72° 48' ; Kangitok, lat. 72° 58'. 



IV. Cape York, lat. 76°. 

 V. Foulke Fiord, lat. 78° 18'. 



VI. Cape Sabine, lat. 78° 45'. 



VII. Buchanan Straits=(Hayes Sound) ; " Twin Glacier " ; "Edward's 



Grief" ; « Deserted Village ; " " Ptarmigan Hill " ;— lat. 78° 52' to 

 78° 56'. 



VIII. Walrus Island (= Norman Lockyer Island) ; Franklin Pierce Bay ; 



Gould Day ; Cape Hilgard ; Cape Louis Napoleon ; Station north 

 of Cape Frazer ; Dobbin Bay ;— lat. 79° 25' to 79° 45'. 



IX. Joiner Bay ; Cape Collinson ; Cape Wilkes ; Bawling's Bay ; 



Kadmore Harbour ;— lat. 80° 3' to 80° 22'. 

 X. Bessels Bay ; Hannah Island ; Cape Morton ;— lat. 81° 4' to 81° 7'. 

 XI. Polaris Bay, lat. 81° 40'. 



XII. Bellot Island; Musk Ox Bay and Fiord; Discovery Bay; St. 



I'atrick's Bay ; Shift Eudder Bay ; Cape Beechey ;— lat. 81° 40' 

 to 81° 53'. 



XIII. Floeberg Beach, lat. 82° 27'; Cape Joseph Henry, lat. 82° 50' ; 



Ward Hunt Island, lat. HH° 4'r f!n,n fi Columbia,. L.f. «a° B\ 



Cape Columbia, lat. 83° 8 



