1893.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 213 



Pedicularis Lapponica L. 



Disco. 

 Pedicularis versicolor Wahl. 



Disco. Dr. Burk. 

 Polygonum viviparum L. 



Sometimes with leaves in dense tufts with leafy flower stems. 

 When not viviparous the plant is dwarf and the flowers bright 

 rosy-red. In the inconspicuous state the scapes are tall and usually 

 leafless. 



Oxyria digyna Willd. 



Widely distributed throughout Greenland. 

 Betula nana L. 



Common in company with the arctic willow at Disco and south- 

 wardly, growing about six inches high, and forming tufts of several 

 feet radius. It is found from Cape Farewell to Duck Islands, the 

 south border of Melville Bay. This is probably its limit. I found 

 it no further north. Saved for fuel by the South Greenland 

 Esquimos. 



Salix arctica R. B. 



Average height 6 inches but spreading often to 6 feet in the circum- 

 ference of its branches. But its short stem grows quite thick. At 

 Disco, I saw one with the short trunk as thick as one's wrist, hang- 

 ing from a crevice in a rock. Grows at all altitudes from the Beach 

 line close to the ice cap. In Inglefield Gulf found large old plants 

 up to within 20 feet of a receding glacier, and on a spot which had 

 certainly been covered by ice less than two years before. There 

 were no lateral or medial moraines to bring the plants, and all the 

 facts on the spot led to the conclusion that the willows had been 

 buried when the glacier flowed over the spot and had been dormant 

 until the ice receded. Professor Heilprin coincided with me in this 

 conclusion. Catkins used by Eskimos for tinder. 



Salix herbacea L. 



Disco and Upernavik. 

 Abies obovata Loud. 



In sheltered fiords near Godthaab and southwardly. Only seen 

 and not collected by me or Dr. Burk. In some situations growing 

 from four to eight feet high. 



