president’s address. 
131 
Tho next point is the assertion that land communication is 
necessary for the immigration of plants. What we now know of 
the geology and botany of the Island of Kolguev, of which Colonel 
Fcilden gave us an account at our last meeting, appears to disprove 
this assertion. This island, although shown in both Geikie's and 
Bathurst’s maps as covered with ice in the Glacial Epoch, is now 
ascertained not to have been in existence then at all, but to be 
entirely post-glacial, and probably very recent. There is no proof 
that it has since its upheaval ever been connected with the mainland ; 
yet on so small an island, very insufficiently examined, we already 
know of nearly lot) flowering plants. How did they get there? 
Probably some drifted by current, possibly on ice ; others were 
carried by wind, and the remainder by birds, on mud attached to 
their beaks and feet, or as undigested seeds ; at all events, there 
they are, without any land communication past or present to account 
for them. 
To account for the return of the flora after expulsion from 
Greenland, Geikie and others suppose a bridge from Scotland to 
the Fieroes, Fie roes to Iceland, Iceland to Greenland. But is there 
any proof of any such bridge having ever existed ? True, there arc 
shoals which, if they were all elevated at the same time, might make 
such a communication, though between Iceland and Greenland' the 
water is much deeper than in the other two cases. What says 
Warming to this?"’ “ In my opinion, Greenland has not been united 
to Europe since, nor even during, or immediately before, the glacial 
period ; in any case not to Scotland by the hypothetical bridge 
between Iceland, the Faeroes, and Scotland.” And although he 
acknowledges the possibility of such a communication having 
existed between Scotland, the Faroes, and Iceland, he denies that 
any such thing could have taken place between Iceland and 
Greenland, citing the depth of water between these two latter 
countries, and the difference in their geological structure, as his 
reasons. 
Sir d. D. Hooker throws the great weight of his opinion into 
*‘Sur la Y r egetation du Greenland* par M. Eug. Warming, French 
Summary of his Work in Danish ( Kjobenhaven, 1888 ). 
