In following the history of the Arctic migration to Europe, it is of great importance to determine the nature and the time of duration of these land-connections. The Greenland flora is a very instructive one in helping us to understand many of the problems connected with the origin of the European plants and animals. To judge from the remarks of Professor James Geikie and Mr. Clement Reid, no flowering plants could have existed in the British Islands during the height of the Glacial period, and one would suppose that the cold in Greenland at that time must have been far more intense than in England. If no flowering plants could exist in the latter country, then very surely none could in Greenland, where the climate was of necessity by far more rigorous. It will be a surprise, therefore, to those who are acquainted only with Professor Geikie's views of the nature of the Glacial period, that two of the most eminent Swedish botanists, who have made a special study of the flora of Greenland, have come to the conclusion that a survival of flowering plants has taken place in Greenland itself from pre-glacial times. According to Professor Nathorst (p. 200), only a few plants could have survived the Glacial period in Greenland. The species now peculiar to that country may perhaps, he thinks, be the remnants of those which existed in pre-glacial times. Mr. Warming, on the other hand, is of opinion that the main mass of Greenland's present flora survived the Glacial period there (p. 403), and that the remainder was carried from Europe and North America by occasional means of distribution of the nature indicated by Darwin.
Very similar views on the origin of the present Polar flora are expressed by Colonel Feilden, who says, "To my mind it seems indisputable that several plants now confined to the Polar area must have originated there and have outlived the period of greatest ice-development in that region" (_b_, p. 50). No land-connection at all need be supposed to have existed in recent geological times, that is to say, during the Glacial period or after, if Mr. Warming's and Colonel Feilden's views be adopted. A pre-glacial connection would be sufficient to explain the general features of distribution. An admission is thus obtained from these two independent authorities that the climate during the Glacial period must have been vastly less severe in the Polar Regions than is generally conceded. I am of opinion that not only the whole of the present flora, but also the fauna of Greenland survived the Glacial period in that country.
