NATURAL SCIENCES OF Til I LADELI> III A. 9o 



Enumeration of the ARCTIC PLANTS collected by Dr. I. I. Hayes in his 

 Eiploration of Smith's Sound, between parallels 78th and 821, daring the 

 months of July, August and beginning of September, 1861. 



BY E. DURAND, THOS. P. JAMES AND SAML. ASIIMEAD. 



Although the following enumeration does not contain any new plants, it is,, 

 nevertheless, sufficiently interesting in other respects not to be passed un-' 

 noticed. la a geographical point of view, it exhibits the peculiar regetation 

 of the most northern portion of the globe as yet visited by civilized man, and 

 illustrates several facts which are not devoid of interest. 



In his Arctic exploration, Dr. Hayes has been very active in collecting 

 specimens in the different branches of Natural History, which he has liberally 

 presented to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. His botanical 

 collection, which was placed in my hands, was not so numerous in species as 

 that of his predecessor and former Arctic companion, Dr. Kane ; but the latter 

 had collected along the whole western coast of Greenland, from 65 a upwards, 

 whilst Dr. Hayes' collections have been confined to the limits of the 7Sth and 

 821 parallels, where, naturally, a greater scarcity of species was to be ex- 

 pected. 



From those extreme Arctic latitudes, in which the thermometer of Fahren- 

 heit scarcely ever reaches 55 J , with the ground continually frozen and mostly 

 covered with snow, Dr. Hayes brought seeds, apparently in a perfect state of 

 maturity ; and also some living roots, imbedded in their own rich soil, and 

 carefully packed in boxes. Among those roots, with their somewhat withered 

 stems, could be recognized Salix Arctica and S. kerbacea, Tqfieldia puhistris, 

 and/2 munculus nivalis, large tufts of Andromeda tetragona,Armeria Labradorica, 

 Sileneacaulis, &c. All these, at their arrival in Philadelphia, in the beginning 

 of January, 1862, were entrusted to the care of our fellow-member, Mr. Kil- 

 vington, a skilful horticulturist, who resorted to every means his experience 

 and ingenuity could suggest, to insure their vegetation. 



Some of the seeds, those of the Crucifera especially, germinated well and 

 put forth the primordial leaves ; the roots began early to show signs of vegeta- 

 tion ; the buds of the willows enlarged, but never arrived at expansion. An- 

 dromeda gave some hope of success, and Lycopodium annotinum and a species 

 of Hyp mini resisted the longest. But as soon as the plants ceased being 

 supplied with ice and snow, they began to droop and die, the one after the 

 other, and, by the middle of April, not one of those Arctic denizens, except 

 Hypnum, remained to enjoy the sweets of our Philadelphia spring. 



Another remarkable fact : The Arctic soil, in appearance so rich, in which 

 the roots were imported, had been found to contain numerous seeds that had 

 given expectations of a good harvest of hyperboreal plants. Mr. Kilvington 

 carefully watched them, early in the spring. They were seen, gradually, to 

 swell and burst, but no sign whatever of germination took place in them. 

 Nor in the whole course of the summer and autumn to this day, has that 

 ground produced a single plant germinated from the seeds that must inevitably 

 have been disseminated over it from the neighboring plants in the garden. 



Incited by the apparent richness of that Arctic soil, Mr. Kilvington planted 

 in it some species of Erica : but they, also, soon languished and would have 

 died had they not been removed to a more genial ground. Evidently, that 

 Arctic soil had become perfectly unproductive out of its ever-frozen zone ! 



E. D. 



1*63.] 



