104 Holm The Earliest Record of Arctic Plants. 



in his famous little book " Spitzbergische ocler Groenlandische 

 Reisebescbreibung gethan im Jabr 1671."* Martens was the sur 

 geon of the ship " Jonas im Wallfisch," which got as far north 

 as the 81st degree of latitude. From here he visited the north 

 western part of Spitzbergen, from whence he brought home several 

 specimens of animals and plants. 



Many of the observations in Martens' book show that he was 

 possessed of unusual energy and skill as a scientific traveler. 

 His voyage was made during a period when Spitzbergen was 

 annually visited by a large number of whalers from various 

 countries in Europe. So great was the traffic that from 1670 to 

 1710 not less than 2,289 ships visited this island, killing the vast 

 number of nearly ten thousand whales. I have not been able to 

 find any record of the Arctic flora prior to the period named, so 

 that Martens is believed to have been the first writer on the Arctic 

 flora. 



His descriptions of Arctic plants are given in the third part of 

 his book (page 41) " Von den Pflanzen so ich in Spitzbergen 

 gefunden." The descriptions are accompanied by four plates, 

 illustrating in all fourteen species. Although the diagnoses are 

 somewhat puzzling, they certainly are much more accurate than 

 those given by the learned English botanist, and his drawings, 

 as a supplement, will enable the reader to identify the phanero 

 gams and one of the two alga3. 



The first plant which Martens describes is " Kraut mit Aloe- 

 blattern" (Table G, Fig. a), which Ray named " Aloefolia florum 

 capitulis rotundis" This plant, judging from the illustration, is 

 undoubtedly Saxifraga stellaris L., forma comosa Poir. The state 

 ment that the flowers form small, flesh-colored heads (" nudo 

 oculo vix discernendi ") would seem to indicate that this plant 

 is the Arctic forma comosa, the flowers of which are transformed 

 into small bulblets. Besides this, the basal leaves of the draw 

 ing agree better with this than with 8. nivalis L. 



" Eingekerbtes Kleinhauswurtz " (Table F, Fig. a) is well 

 drawn and represents Saxifraga nivalis L. The " Hauswurz " of 

 the Germans is now the popular name for Sempervivum tectorum, 

 so that the identification is not so far wrong. Ray has described 

 this plant under the name "Sedum minus dentatum, capitulis 

 squamosis.'' The flowers are described in this species as having 

 five petals, so that Martens would surely have seen the single 



* Friderich Martens, Hamburg, 1675. 



