44 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



but this performance is quite put in the shade by some of the 

 shelf fungi which produce five times as many. The world's 

 record for spore prduction seems likely always to remain with 

 the giant puff-ball (Lycoperdon giganteum). A specimen of 

 this enterprising species about twelve inches in diameter has 

 been estimated to produce seven million million spores. Some 

 of the larger specimens known must contain no less than 

 20,000,000,000,000 spores. Some other fungi may shed a 

 million spores a minute and keep this up for several days. In 

 view of this immense production of spores, the wonder is that 

 fungi are not more numerous than they are. Suitable places 

 for growth, however, are not very numerous and the same in- 

 vestigator reports that the chance of a spore alighting in a 

 favorable place for germination is about one in 1,000,000,- 

 000,000. 



The Arctic Flora. — In exhibiting two recent collections 

 of plants from Greenland and Ellesmere Land to the Torrey 

 Botanical Club, Dr. Rydberg brought out several interesting 

 facts relating to the flora of those ice-bound regions. There 

 are about one hundred and fifty different species of plants 

 north of the Arctic Circle and with the exception of the 

 grasses and sedges, all of these are dicotyledons. One other 

 monocot, Tofieldia pdustris, is found in northern Greenland. 

 Twenty-six families of plants are represented. Nearly all the 

 plants are perennials with low and densely tufted stems and 

 thick rootstocks. There are probably not half a dozen annual 

 plants in the flora, and the woody species are scearcely more 

 numerous. Of course there are no trees but there are several 

 shrubs or rather bushes; among them the dwarf birch (Betula 

 Hah ellif olio), three willows {Salix groenlandica, S. anglorum 

 and S. herhacea), the crowberry (Einpctrum nigrum), a blue- 

 berry (Vaccinium uliginosum microphyllum) , Cassiope tetra- 



