ENGLISHMAN’S HARBOUR 67 
scheme of colour. Many of the Greenland flowers 
are familiar British or European species; others 
come from the New World: botanically as well as 
geologically Greenland has many features in com- 
mon with both the eastern and western hemi- 
spheres. It is a noteworthy fact that among the 
flowering plants recorded from the country as a 
whole, about four hundred, only one or two are 
peculiar to Greenland. On rocky slopes, often 
tucked away in crevices, the cushions of the Moss 
Campion (Silene acaulis), anchored by a strong tap 
root like an elongated rat’s tail burrowing far into 
the covering of earth, represent a well-known 
architectural type in Alpine and Arctic countries. 
_In the neighbourhood of Godhavn, especially 
in the exceptionally favourable locality known as 
Englishman’s Harbour, so called because an Eng- 
lish captain mistook it for the main harbour and 
wrecked his ship there, the abundance of southern 
types is a striking feature. By southern types in 
this sense is meant plants which reach their 
northern limit on the mainland considerably south 
of the latitude of Disko Island. The sheltered bay 
faces south and has the added advantage given by 
the warm springs, reminiscent of the days of 
volcanic activity in this part of Greenland, which 
issue along the irregular boundary between the 
old gneissic foundation rocks and the much more 
modern superstructure of basalt and beds of ash. 
The Willows, often assuming an espalier form 
against the boulders of gneiss on the slope over- 
looking the bay, are unusually well grown (Fig. 
5—2 
