The composition of the Flora of the Arctic American 
Archipelago and its geographical subdivisions. 
A Hora of 204 species of Howering plants and fenis may seem ratber poor 
for so wide an expanse as that of the Arctic Islands, and it will, no doubt, receive 
c'(.nsi(l('ral)l(> additions in fiiture, biit still I think we may look upon it as knowii 
as tar as it> charactcristic featnres are concerned. If a comparison is made with 
( .ivi nlaiul, 111., habitahlo part of wbicli is considerably smaller, the latter land, 
mdeed, bas the advantage of harboiiring a flora of more than 350 species, but it 
nmst be remembered that Greeiiland reaches somevvhat farther south, and that its 
Southern parts have a climate strongly influenced by the Atlantic and so far from 
truly arctic that a birch-forest can trive along the inner parts of its fjords. We 
shall see låter which results a comparison with Greenland gives when the plants 
confined to the more temperate parts are left out of consideration, so as to make 
the comparison more natural, but now some statistic figures shall first be put 
together to show the part played in the composition of the flora by the different 
families and genera. For this purpose the following table (III) is compiled, where 
the corresponding figures for Greenland and the arctic parts of the American Con- 
tment are al.^o introduced for comparison. Families absent from the flora of the 
''^ brackets, and for each family the number of genera and 
spiH-us IS nitrdduced. the latter also being expressed in pct. of the flora 
Tlie number of families represented in the Arctic Islands is 31, in the arctic 
parts of tlie < '..ntinent it is 49 and in Greenland it is 53. Of the famihes present 
ni the Ar( hi[)clago none is missing on the Continent, and LinacecB alone is absent 
from the flora of Greenland. But if we go to the genera we shall find no less 
than 12 represented in the Archipelago which do not appear in Greenland, while 
no genus present in the islands is missing in the arctic parts of the Continent 
with the exception of Pleuropogon, not noted for any other localities than Boothia 
Felix and the Melville Peninsula; most probably it will be found elsewhere also. 
In the case of the species the uear affinity of the island flora to that of the Conti- 
nent ]s of course also very marked, oniy two species being found to the north and 
