Arctic Plants: Geographical Distribution 85 b 



Polypodium rhaeticum, Asplenium crenatum, Allosurus, Lycopodium alpinum, 

 and Isoetes. Absent from the European Alps, but recorded from Altai are: 

 Dryopteris fragrans, Asplenium crenatum, Woodsia glabella, W. hyperborea, 

 Equisetum scirpoides, emdE. variegatum. Finally, absent from Altai but reported 

 from the European Alps are: Cystopteris montana, Allosurus, Asplenium viride, 

 Blechnum, and Botrychium matricarioides. 



It is interesting tO notice that, if those most widely distributed had also 

 been reported from arctic Siberia, 17 of the species enumerated on Table 2 

 would be circumpolar. Their total absence from that region makes a wide gap 

 in their northern distribution. And naturally so, for the Siberian tundra would 

 never make a home suitable to ferns. Nevertheless, on the southern border, 

 in the regions of Altai and Baikal, we have seen that not less than 25 species 

 of arctic Pteridophyta have become established, and strange as it might appear, 

 associated with flowering plants, many of which are known, at present, to occur 

 in arctic Siberia, and even to be Circumpolar. 



Otherwise with Europe and North America. We have seen that the distri- 

 bution of the arctic Pteridophyta, in the temperate regions, notably mountainous, 

 of these continents corresponds well with their northern occurrence. And at the 

 same time we have seen that several of the species are identical with those of the 

 Altai mountains. In other words, there is a striking accordance between the 

 flora of the southern mountains throughout the northern hemisphere and that of 

 the arctic region, as far as the Pteridophyta are concerned. And we have seen also 

 that in the polar regions the ferns and their allies have reached the highest latitudes 

 known for vascular plants. By combining these data relative to their present 

 distribution, I really believe, that most of the arctic Pteridophyta originated in 

 the far north. They cannot possibly be considered as a part of the original 

 alpine Altai flora, as long as we have no trace of their migration from these 

 mountains to the north, such as is otherwise the case of a number of flowering 

 plants, still to be found north of Altai, i.e. in arctic Siberia. 



In passing to describe the geographical distribution of the Phanerogams, it 

 will be seen that we are dealing with a group of plants which has become more 

 evenly distributed around the polar regions than the Pteridophyta; thus a 

 number of them are, at present, circumpolar. 



Although Picea canadensis BSP. (Abies canadensis Mill.), does not proper- 

 ly belong to the arctic zone, it deserves mention that it is known to occur in 

 many places far north of the arctic circle in Canada and Alaska. It was found 

 in abundance in two districts explored by the expedition, namely the Mackenzie 

 delta and Coppermine river valley. With regard to the distribution of the species 

 in the Mackenzie delta, Mr. A. H. Harrison has published a map of the delta 

 showing the north limit of the spruce.' According to this map the spruce begins 

 a little above Lat. 69° N., at the south point of Richard island, extending from 

 there southeastward to second Eskimo lake, at about Lat. 68° 50' N., and then 

 northeastw^d, reaching Lat. 69° 35' N. near the south shore of Liverpool bay. 

 The spruce thus comes within ten miles of the coast on the west side of Franklin 

 bay, on the Horton river, and within thirty or forty miles of the coast on the 

 Anderson river, south of Liverpool bay. The most northern bunch of spruce 

 trees in the Coppermine river region is, according to Dr. R. M. Anderson (in 

 Stefansson: My Life with the Eskimo, l.c.p. 445), within six miles of the coast 

 on a little creek valley several miles east of^ the Coppermine river, but these 

 trees were scrubby and dwarfed. In a small, isolated grove of spruce near 

 Kendall river, a few miles west of the Coppermine river, and not far from Dismal 

 lake. Dr. Anderson measured one tree, which was four feet and six inches in 

 circumference five feet above the ground and above the bench roots; the same 



I "In Search of a Polar Continent." 1905-1907. London, 1908. 



