214 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1893. 



Empetrum nigrum. L. 



The Eskimos are very fond of the fruit. Women and children go 

 out to gather it, as they would blackberries or strawberries with 

 us. I was told that at Disco and Godthaab the natives make pre- 

 serves of it. It is kept for fuel. 



Tofieldia palustris Hudson. 



Disco. 

 Luzula arcuata Mey. 

 Luzula spadicea D. C. 



Disco. Not in Dr. Burk's collection. 

 Eriophorum polystachyon L. var. latifolium. 



Called by the natives Ewickswa — " Rabbits-foot grass." Used 

 by the Eskimos as punk or tinder. It is first ignited by a spark, 

 and then blown into a flame on dry moss. It grows in vast quantities 

 in low wet places. From Melville Bay south it reaches a foot high, 

 — but only about six inches above that point. 



Scirpus caespitosus L. 

 Dr. Burk. 



Carex vulgaris Fr. var. hyperborea. 

 Carex atrata Boott. 



Not in Dr. Burk's collection. Specimens in the Herbarium of the 

 Academy collected in latitude 81°, 82° by Dr. Emil Bessels of the 

 ill-fated Polaris expedition are barely 2 inches high. These from 

 McCormick Bay are about one foot. 



Kobesia scirpina Willd. 



Dry places, McCormick Bay. Plants remarkably stout and 

 stocky, but culms scarcely reaching three inches high. 



Hierochloe alpina R. & S. 



McCormick Bay. Making a close herbage nearly one foot high. 

 Alopecurus alpinus L. 



This seems to be the prevailing grass around Eskimo settlements. 

 It grows in such wild luxuriance, with herbage a foot in height, and 

 of such a vivid green that it can be seen for two or three miles from 

 the shore. Some of my specimens were 18 inches in length. At 

 Godthaab hay is made from it. 



Poa alpina L. 



Near Disco it grows from 18 inches to 2 feet high, but the leaves 

 are comparatively short. 



