1898 —1902. No. 16.] FLOW. PLANTS AND FERNS OF N..W. GREENLAND. 47 
but it comes a little nearer to that of Ellesmereland than to that of 
N. E. Greenland. On the other hand, it is also connected with that of 
Danish West Greenland, and if a border-line between a Greenland and 
an american flora is to be drawn, we must let it follow Smith Sound 
and its northern continuation and not make such a deflection as to 
include Ellesmereland, as Hooker (App. Nares) has done. The almost 
entire absence, in the Ellesmereland flora, of species that might have 
come from Greenland, entirely prohibits its consideration as greenlandic. 
The only species which may be of eastern origin are Taraxacum 
phymatocarpum, Aira flexuosa, and further Melandrium triflorum, 
if that plant is not erroneously reported from Grinnell Land, as I think 
it is, and perhaps also Agropyrum violaceum. All these, however, are 
of a far too sporadic appearance to give any greenlandic character to 
the flora; whereas, on the other hand, the similarity to the flora of the 
other American Islands is strongly marked. 
I think it best with this to finish the sketch of the connections of 
the North-Western Greenland flora at present. I am fully aware that 
it is very incomplete; and I would accentuate the fact that it is by no 
means to be considered as a definite treatment, but only as a preliminary 
notice to an examination into the relations and history of the whole arctic 
american flora, which I hope some time to have an opportunity of 
finishing. I have also abstained from quoting here the different works 
in which the history of the Greenland flora is discussed. Perhaps in 
the mean time also the revision of the american collections may be 
made, which, as I have above pointed out, is highly desirable. For 
my own part, I must undertake a thorough revision of all the material 
from Arctic America in the London collections, so as to be able to 
make up lists of distribution for each species, and flora lists for each 
island or group islands in the Archipelago as well as for different parts 
of the arctic shore, before I feel myself justified in approaching nearer 
to the phyto-geographical questions, the solution of which I look upon 
as the principal object of my contributions to the knowledge of the 
arctic american and Greenland flora and vegetation. 
Lund, Sweden, November 1908. 
