166 А. Е. Porsizp. 
through the thickest soles. Towards noon it is mostly dead calm and 
the air temperature may rise as high as 25°C. The surplus water of 
spring time has now all evaporated. The soil has been baked hard as 
brick and is netted all over with fine sun-cracks. The botanist not familiar 
with the local flora would hardly expect to find any plants here: still 
there are a few — the association of the arctic “desert” — hardly more 
than 15—20, mostly xerophilous. Here is а Calamagrostis purpurascens 
and there a Carex nardina or a Festuca ovina. Now and then a prostrate 
Salix glauca which during a century perhaps has developed a few crooked 
branches. During a snowless winter long ago the frost killed the most 
protruding branches among which a handful of organic matter has 
accumulated on which grows either a Carex rupestris or а Cerastium 
alpinum. For the most part there are only Cruciferæ and Composite; 
Lesquerella with countless fruiting stems which in June and July bear 
clusters of bright yellow flowers which ripen their seeds in August. 
Braya purpurascens, Arabis arenicola and Draba magellanica subsp. 
cinerea are all very insignificant when not in flower, while the erect 
stems of Artemisia and Erigeron compositus render them more con- 
spicuous. | 
The vegetation of Atanikerdluk affords а striking contrast to the 
poor “Fjeldmark” of Pätüt; probably, as suggested by BERGGREN 
(2, p. 889), this is due to the influence of the basalt. 
… In a small pond on the peninsula I collected some aquatic plants: 
Potamogeton filiformis, Ranunculus confervoides, Hippuris vulgaris and 
at the borders dense growths of Eriophora and Carices together with 
the rare Calamagrostis neglecta. In the thin débris on the bottom I saw 
some dense, green clumps which on closer examination turned out to 
be Heleocharis acicularis f. submersa. As neither Hartz nor NATHORST 
(13) mention Heleocharis, a species forming conspicuous masses in 1921; 
it is possibly a recent immigrant. Near the summit of the peninsula I 
found the white-flowered Chamaenerium latifolium mentioned by NAT- 
HORST [. с. р. 18. 
On the mainland several fertile slopes almost resembled the “Urteli” 
so well known from south Disko, characterized by broadleaved herba- 
ceous vegetation as Poa alpina, Carex Macloviana, scirpoidea, alpina, 
Viscaria, Thalictrum, Sibbaldia, Potentilla alpestris, Veronica alpina and 
saxatilis, Antennaria glabrata and intermedia, Arnica and a most puzzling 
Polygonum viviparum with a paniculate inflorescence. 
The vegetation of Sarqaq has been investigated by several bota- 
nists and is therefore well known. It presented many interesting features 
as the rock is gneissic and thus affords a good basis for a comparison 
of the flora with that on the rest of the Nügssuaq peninsula. 
The most striking feature was of course the closed vegetation of 
