1898-1902. No. 16.] FLOW. PLANTS AND FERNS OF N.-W.GREENLAND. 19 
to have the rich, green slopes in full view; but it was deemed more 
profitable to spend the time in walrus-hunting. 
The table below, which I have compiled in order to show the grad- 
ual widening of our knowledge about the flora of the region, I have 
thought to be of some interest; the more so, as it also gives some hints 
concerning the results to be expected from future exploration and about 
the different degrees of accuracy in the observations of different travellers. 
It must, however, be kept in mind, that some places are visited only 
during times when very little can be found; such, for instance, are Gran- 
ville and Lafayette Bays, and Lockwood Island; but, on the other hand 
also many places have certainly been very imperfectly explored. Judging 
from the brilliant verdure of the slopes of Cape Alexander, I cannot 
doubt that I should have been more than repaid, for a few hours’ visit 
there, by a list of at least 30—40 species, and a corresponding collection. 
The table does not give the numbers of species for each locality in 
such a way as they are to be taken directly from the different lists, but 
I have tried to make use of as many statements as possible, and have 
entered all records that are tolerably reliable, and not too vague as to 
the locality. If the somewhat indistinct statements of the older authors 
had been used in a larger degree, of course the numbers, for instance, 
for Ross, Kane, etc. would have been larger at the expense of the later 
collectors, who have given exact records about their specimens. Such 
indications as ,,Smith Sound stations“, ,Inglefield Gulf‘, etc., are of 
course left out of consideration here, even if sometimes I have mentioned 
them in the following statements about the occurrence of each separate 
species. 
If the 14 species, admitted in the special treatment as doubtful, are 
added to the number in the table, we get a total of 122 species. When 
Nartuorst (N. W. Grénl.) treated the flora in 1884, he gave a list of 88 
species to which, in his Nachtr., 4 more are added. Notwithstanding 
the fact that I have excluded 19 (besides some for which I use other 
names), the flora now reckons 16 species more or, in other words, 35 
species have been added since then. Some of these, however, had al- 
ready been found before Natuorst wrote his compilation, but they were 
either wrongly determined, or were excluded by him as too doubtful to 
insert in the list. Thus the new species are, in fact, only 29, found by 
Meenan, WETHERILL, STEIN, and myself. 
As I shall have to use the numbers of species for the whole area 
and its different parts in the following discussion about the affinity of 
the flora, I am sorry that I have not been able to make sure, at least 
