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SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 527. 



that offers such favorable conditions as the 

 region in which he proposes to establish his 

 station. The southern coast of Disko has the 

 richest flora and the most luxuriant vegetation 

 in northern Greenland. It is the northern- 

 most point where all the different plant for- 

 mations of Greenland are represented. Creta- 

 ceous and Tertiary formations with rich de- 

 posits of fossils occur, and botb gneiss and 

 basalt rock formations are here represented. 

 The inland ice and the high mountains are 

 easily accessible, glaciers in all stages, fjords 

 and rivers, and the open sea give an excellent 

 opportunity for investigations. All the main 

 features of arctic climate are found here. 

 The sun does not rise over the horizon for 

 over six weeks, and for a still longer period 

 of the summer it does not go down. The col- 

 ony Godhavn is the center of commercial life 

 in northern Greenland, and it has regular 

 communication with Copenhagen. 



The station will be in charge of a resident 

 investigator, and accommodation will be pro- 

 vided for two visitors, who will have the use 

 of all facilities the laboratory can offer, free 

 of charge. By the establishment of this sta- 

 tion the total expense to a visiting scientist 

 will be reduced to about one third of previous 

 cost. It is estimated that a stay for a sum- 

 mer will cost $375, this sum covering the fare 

 both wa.ys between Copenhagen and Green- 

 land. A prolonged sojourn will add propor- 

 tionall.y a small sum only. 



Among the researches which should be car- 

 ried on partly by the resident investigator, 

 partly by visiting biologists, Mr. Porsild draws 

 attention to the following general problems :' 

 What environmental factors cause the pe- 

 culiar aspect of arctic plants and plant com- 

 munities? What internal and external quali- 

 ties make it i)Ossible for arctic plants to exist 

 under conditions too severe for any other 

 plants? These two headings necessarily in- 

 clude a great number of special inquiries into 

 structure, nutrition, growth, respiration, trans- 

 piration, variation and adaptation, flowering 

 and propagation of plants, development, com- 

 petition and succession of plant communities, 

 problems for the solution of which the condi- 

 tions in the arctic regions are especially favor- 



able, but which require detailed experiments 

 and observations, covering a long period of 

 time. In the preface to his principal work, 

 ' Plant Geography upon a Physiological Basis/ 

 the late Professor A. F. W. Schimper (1898) 

 suggests the foundation of a botanical station 

 such as now proposed by Mr. Porsild, when h© 

 says : " It is to be hoped that a counterpart 

 to Buitenzorg may soon be established in the 

 arctic zone; for an arctic laboratory, with a 

 modest equipment corresponding to the pov- 

 erty of the flora and the relative simplicity of 

 the problems to be solved would be of great 

 service." Only a few problems of plant physi- 

 ological interest may here be mentioned as 

 subjects for investigation at a botanical labora- 

 tory in the Arctic. It has recently been shown 

 that a great number of arctic plants are sup- 

 plied with mycorrhiza. The question has 

 arisen to what extent ready prepared food 

 material is absorbed by means of this sym- 

 biotic relation under the prevailing light con- 

 ditions in the arctic region. The process of 

 photosynthesis in green plants must neces- 

 sarily be retarded by the insufficient light. 

 It is generally supposed that the long arctic 

 day is a compensation to the plants for the 

 short period of growth. This has not yet been 

 proved, however, by real evidence. We do not 

 know, as yet, how small amount of light is 

 necessary to bring about absorption of carbon- 

 dioxide in the green plants of the Arctic. We 

 have no data, except occasional observations 

 by travelers, as to the peculiar results on vege- 

 tation of the Arctic temperatures. Such facts 

 as willows flowering and budding as soon as 

 they reach over the surface of the snow, while 

 their lower parts are still frozen, are, as yet, 

 unexplained. Similarly the phenomenon of 

 plants growing and flowering on steep moun- 

 tain sides, where they are exposed to a tem- 

 perature of 30° C. in daytime and several 

 degrees under zero at night, and to extremely 

 low temperatures in winter without any snow- 

 covering. The adaptations in arctic plants 

 for conservation of the water supply or min- 

 imizing the transpiration are still imperfectly 

 known. The ecology of roots of arctic plants 

 is hardly studied at all. The succession of 

 plant communities on new soil, left bare by 



