134 
both are very imperfectly known as to their distributioD. The maiiy species of tbe 
Archipelago not reaching Greenlaiid shall be discussed låter, when we come to the 
migration and history of the flora. 
The largest famihes in the flora of the Archipelago are the Graminece, Cype- 
racere, Crucifera, and Compositce, but in Greenland as well as on the arctic 
shore of the American Continent the mutual order of the two first is reversed, and 
in Greenland the Caryophyllace<E take the third place, with the Crucifercs in the 
fourth, the Compositce l)eing remarkably slightly represented in that region, especi- 
ally to the north. The genera richest in species in the Arctic Islands are Carex 
with 18 (33 on the Continent, 38 in Greenland), Saxi fråga with 12 (Cont. 18, 
Greenl. 12), Salix with 10 (Cont. 18, Greenl. 4), and Pedicularis with 7 (Cont. 12, 
Greenl. 8). If the Pteridophyta are left out of consideratiou we will get the propor- 
tions between Monocotyledonece and Dicotyledonem within the three areas here com- 
pared, showu in the following table : 
species 
.... 
pct. 
pct. 
MonocotyledoneiB 
22 
70 
24 
76 
,g 
30 
35 
133 
21 
79 
104 
303 
?! 
37 
96 
28 118 
72 1 209 
Total 
92 
100 
196 
100 
168 
100 
100 1 133 
100 I 327 
100 
For the two American regions the usual relative increase of Momcotyledomcs 
northwards is clearly enough pronounced, but the figures for Greenland seem rather 
curious when the extent to the south of that land is considered. We must, how- 
ever, take into consideration also the coraparatively complete exploration of Green- 
land which implies that tlie easily overlooked grasses and sedges are far better 
studied there than in the American regions. The corresponding figures for the 
Southern and northern groups of islands in the Archipelago are in accord with 
usual experience, as may be seen below: 
The proportions of genera to species in the floras here considered are the 
following: Arctic Archipelago 1: 2.io (southem parts 1: 2.05, northern parts 1: 1.80), 
arctic parts of American Continent 1: 2.43, Greenland 1: 2.46. With this we may 
leave statistics at present and go over to questions concerning the distribution of 
the separate species. 
