444 
APPENDIX NO. XVIII. 
southern, from Fiske Fiord to 73°; and Smith’s Sound alone, only 
three degrees in length, has proved nearly as rich, (See Table No. 1.) 
These unexpected results show that the Polar zone cannot properly 
be compared with the Alpine regions of the more temperate climates. 
The uninterrupted action of light and heat, during the whole pefiod 
between the rising and setting of the sun, which marks the day or 
summer season of the poles,—a purer and damper atmosphere, aided, 
perhaps, by a greater accumulation of electric fluid, &c.—must neces¬ 
sarily and more promptly (in the lowest levels) actuate and perfect the 
vegetation, not only of plants inured to those climates, but also of those 
the seeds of which have been transported hither from milder regions 
by currents, migration of birds, or other causes. Unlike the snow¬ 
capped and barren summits of the Alpine regions, at all times destitute 
of verdure, it is probable that vegetation is permitted to extend to the 
very pole itself, wherever it meets with proper soil, favorable solar ex¬ 
posure, and protection from the blasts of winds. 
The southern extremity of Greenland, from Cape Farewell to Suk- 
kertoppen, has been well explored, and found to possess nearly the same 
climate as Labrador, with an almost identical vegetation. E, Meyer, 
in his Planta ; Labradoriccr , (1830,) enumerates 224 phrenogamous 
species, the greater part of which arc indigenous both to Labrador and to 
Greenland. Professor Giesecke, who resided several years in Greenland, 
for the express purpose of studying its Natural History, published in 
Brewster’s Edinburgh Encyclopedia (1832) an enumeration of 171 
phaenogamous species, with a long list of Cryptogams, amounting to no 
less than 231 species, all indigenous to that island. From the two above 
works, and from all the other sources to which I have had access,—De 
Candolle, Torrey and Gray, Hooker, Brown, Richardson, Hornemann, 
Steudel,—for Cyperacem and Graminem, &c., I have compiled the fol¬ 
lowing Table No. 2, which presents an amount of 2G4 phamogamous 
species, belonging to 109 genera and 3G families. 
This apparent richness of the Greenland flora is, however, confined 
to the extreme southern point of the island; for, from Sukkertoppen 
to a few degrees higher, it is found to have lost already eight or ten 
families; and from Upernavik, 73°, to the outlet of Smith’s Sound, it 
is reduced to twenty families, by the entire disappearance of Violacccc , 
Oxalidacece , Holoragccc , Umbdliferect.Cornac.ecc , Lcntibulacece , Pri- 
mulacecCy Gcntianacece , Borayine.cc, Labiatecc , PI u m ha yin a cecn } Plan - 
taginacece , Betulaccce , Conife^cc , Orchidacecr, and Melanthhcecc . 
Notwithstanding this prodigious decrease, the column headed North 
Greenland from 73°, in Sir John Richardson’s Statistical Tables, will bo 
