Introduction. 
The Botany of the large Arctic Archipelago north of the American Contineiit 
certaiiily offers inany points of great iuterest, and notwithstanding we have now to 
go nearly a century back for the first botanical investigatioiis undertaken in those 
regions, most questions to be solved there are still left for future travellers. Closer 
investigations in the oecology of the vegetation, for instance, have never been made, 
and probably will not be executed for a long time yet, as the opportunities for such 
work must always be rather small during an arctic expedition. Other questions 
there are, however, which may be approached already now by utilizing the materials 
brought together by the different expeditions which have visited Arctic America 
during the last hundred years. Most interesting among these is, I think, the com- 
parative study of the flora of the different parts of the Archipelago, the distribution 
of the species within the area in connection with their occurrence outside it, and 
the inferences that can be drawn from them about the history of the present flora, 
the origin and affinities of its species. To everybody who bas studied the phyto- 
geography of the Arctic Regions the difficulty of obtaining a satisfactory view över 
the flora of the Arctic Archipelago must always have occurred. For my own part 
1 felt very keenly the want of a reliable compilation of the many different papers, 
hsts of plants in tiie reports of various expeditions, etc, when some years ago I 
w^as working out my Flora of Ellesmereland. Also I thought of making out such 
a summary, hut then the identifications of plants by various authors are of a rather 
different value as also their definitions of species, and I could easily see, that without 
a critical revision of as rauch material from the different collections as I could 
possibly get an opportunity of looking over a satisfactory result could not be achieved. 
Now the principal collections from the Arctic Archipelago are those of tlie 
English expeditions about the middle of last century and as the main part of them 
is kept in the London museums I had to go there to make the inspection needed 
for the work I had in thought. I therefore applied to the Royal Physiogeaphical 
SociETY of Lund for a subvention from the Anders Jahan Retzius Memorial Fund 
for the purpose of carrying out my plan. This was readily granted, and thus I 
could spend most of the past summer in London and now have respectfully to 
