﻿PLANTJE KANE AN JE GR(ENLANDIC;E. 181 



plants inured to those climates, but also of those the seeds of which have been trans- 

 ported hither from milder regions by currents, migration of birds, or other causes. 

 Unlike the snow-capped and barren summits of the Alpine regions, at all times des- 

 titute of verdure, it is probable that vegetation is permitted to extend to the very pole 

 itself, wherever it meets with proper soil, favorable solar exposure, and protection from 

 the blasts of winds. 



The southern extremity of Greenland, from Cape Farewell to Sukkertoppen, has 

 been well explored, and found to possess nearly the same climate as Labrador, with 

 an almost identical vegetation. E. Meyer, in his Plantce Labradoricce, (1830,) enume- 

 rates 224 phsenogamous species, the greater part of which are indigenous both to Lab- 

 rador and to Greenland. Professor Giesecke, who resided several years in Greenland, 

 for the express purpose of studying its Natural History, published in Brewster's Ed- 

 inburgh Encyclopedia (1832) an enumeration of 171 phaenogamous species, with a 

 long list of Cryptogams, amounting to no less than 231 species, all indigenous to that 

 island. From the two above works, and from all the other sources to which I have 

 had access, — De Candolle, Torrey and Gray, Hooker, Brown, Richardson, Hornemann, 

 Steudel, — for Cyperacese and Graminese, &c, I have compiled the following Table No. 

 2, which presents an amount of 264 phaenogamous species, belonging to 109 genera 

 and 36 families. 



This apparent richness of the Greenland flora is, however, confined to the extreme 

 southern point of the island; for, from Sukkertoppen to a few degrees higher, it is 

 found to have lost already eight or ten families ; and from Upernavik, 73°, to the out- 

 let of Smith's Sound, it is reduced to twenty families, by the entire disappearance of 

 Violacea, Oxalidacea, Holoragece, UmbelliferecF, Cornacece, Lentibulacece, Pimulacece, 

 Qentianacece, Boragmacece, Labiata, Plumbaginacece, Plantaginacem, Betulacece, Coni- 

 fercs, Orchidacece, and Melanthacece. 



Notwithstanding this prodigious decrease, the column headed North Greenland from 

 73°, in Sir John Richardson's Statistical Tables, will be found, by the accession of 27 

 other species from Dr. Kane's collections, now to be raised — from 49 phsenogamous 

 species allotted to that region by the eminent English botanist — to 76 ; which is a 

 gain of fifty per cent. 



The following species are to be added to Richardson's column of North Greenland 

 from 73° :— 



Ranunculus Sabinii ? 

 Hesperis Pallasii. 

 Vesicaria arctica. 

 3 Draba. 

 Arenavia arctica. 

 Cerastium, N. Sp. ? 



Dryas octopetala. 

 Alchemilla vulgaris. 

 Potentilla frigida. 

 Sedum rhodiola. 

 2 Saxifraga. 

 Gnaphalium sylvaticum. 



Hieracium vulgatuni. 

 Vaccinium uliginosum 

 Pyrola chlorantha. 

 Diapensia Lapponica. 

 2 Pedicularis. 

 Empetrum nigrum. 



1 Salix. 



2 Eriopborum. 

 Agrostis canina. 

 Festuca ovina. 



27 



Only two new species, Pedicularis Kauei and Br yam lucidum, have been found in 

 the whole collections. 



