166 Dr. W. Seller on some Plants obtained 



clays, Mr. Goodsir hoped to obtain a complete collection of the 

 animals, plants and minerals existing upon them. 



The expedition has now proceeded into the inhospitable icy 

 regions of the north, and we must not expect to receive any 

 further accounts of it until it has either succeeded in making its 

 way into the Pacific Ocean, or having found that to be impossible, 

 is on its return to England. In either case there can be no doubt 

 that much valuable scientific infoi*mation will be obtained. 



XVII. — Observations on some Plants obtained from the shores of 

 Davis' Straits. By William Seller, M.D., Fellow of the 

 Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh*. 



A FEW weeks since, Mr. Sutherland, a student of medicine, who 

 made a voyage last summer to Davis' Straits as medical officer of 

 a whale ship, presented me with some plants gathered on the 

 coasts and dried as he best could without any of the usual bota- 

 nical conveniences. There are in all about twenty-five species, 

 and a few of them are plants which cannot fail to interest the 

 botanist. All of them were gathered within or close upon the 

 Arctic Circle, on the coasts of Davis' Straits and Baffin's Bay, 

 adjacent to the usual course of whale-fishing vessels, so that, were 

 it deemed desirable, it would be easy, by holding out a little en- 

 couragement, to induce some of the many young men who go 

 out annually in the same capacity with Mr. Sutherland to bring 

 home collections of this description. 



It is impossible to believe that the variations of species under 

 the opposite circumstances of different regions, as respects soil, 

 situation and climate, do not take place in obedience to fixed ge- 

 neral laws. Yet our knowledge on this head at present consists 

 almost exclusively of what may be called unreduced particular 

 observations on certain species ; too few to found upon. It may 

 be that such laws prevail, yet lie beyond our reach. If such be 

 the case, the only resource is to make up our minds to sacrifice 

 brevity in regard to species observed to vary, and to practise de- 

 tailed description of all their varieties. And fortunately, while 

 this method serves as a considerable corrective of the evil in the 

 meantime, it is the only plan, by following out which we can 

 hope to arrive at the general laws of variation, if these be attain- 

 able. 



When a species is known to be polymorphous, we might, in 

 the meantime, advisably lay aside the ordinary circumscribed 



* Read before the Botanical Society of PMinburgh, 12th of June and 

 10th of July, 1845. 



