HOOKER ON ARCTIC PLANTS. 221 



Altogether there are absent in Greenland upwards of 230 Arctic- 

 European species, which are all of them American plants. The 

 most curious feature of this list is the absence throughout Green- 

 land of the genera SpircBa, Senccio, Astragalus, Trifolium, Phaca^ 

 Oxytropis, Androsace, Aster, Myosotis, Rosa, Ribes, Thlaspi, 

 Sisymbnum, Geranium, &c., and of such ubiquitous Arctic 

 species as Fragaria vesca, Caltha palustris* Barbarea precox. 

 It is remarkable that AstragalinecB are also absent from Spitz- 

 bergen and Iceland. 



Iceland possesses 432 species (Monocot. 157, Dicot. 275), 

 amongst 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 de- 

 siderata of Iceland are AstragalinecBy Anemone, Aconitum, Braya, 

 Turritis, Artemisia, and Androsace ; Alopecurus alpinus, Luzula 

 arcuata, Hierochloe alpina^ Rubus chamceomorus, Cassiopeia te- 

 tragona. Arnica montana, Antennaria dioica, and Chrysoplenium 

 altemifolium. On the other hand Iceland contains of Arctic 

 genera absent in Greenland, Caltha (one of the most common 

 plants about Icelandic dwellings), Cakile, Geranium, THfolium, 

 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., do not 

 add more than 74 species to its flora, and these are almost unexcep- 

 tionally 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 it& 

 flora are, Ranunculus Cymbalarice, Pyrus Americana, a very 

 trifling variety of the European Aucuparia, Viola Muhlenbergii 

 (a mere variety of V. canina\ Arenaria Grcenlandica (a plant 

 elsewhere found only on the While Mountains of New Hamp- 

 shire), and Parnassia Kotzebuei (a species which is scarcely 

 difi*erent from palustris). 



The only plants which are not members of the Arctic flora else- 

 where, and which are confined in Greenland to the Temperate zone, 

 besides the above American plants, are Blitum glaucum, Pola- 

 mogeton marinus, Sparganium minimum, and Strep topus am^ 

 plexifolius ; the rest will all be found in the column of the Arctic 

 Plant Catalogue devoted to Greenland, where S. signifies that the 

 species is found south only of the Arctic Circle in that country. 

 On the other hand. Temperate Greenland adds very materially to 

 the number of European-Arctic species that do not enter 

 Eastern America (Arctic or Temperate), amongst which the most 

 remarkable are — 



Cerastium viscosum. Sedum annuum. 



Vicia cracca. Galium uliginosum. 



Rubus saxatillis. G. palustre. 



♦ This is the more remarkable because it forms -a conspicuous feature ia 

 Iceland, and is a frequent native of all the Arctic-American coasts and islands. 



