lis MiMlTKN C. l'illlSll.K. 



searehod for it in \;iin (»n tlic luiliiliii imMitionod. Ordinarily ;i Ijybrid- 

 ation hpt\v»MMi Ihr Inso s])Ocios \\'\\\ iml casily Uv cfTcctod, hor-ause 

 I*, grand i flora has ceased lloworing wlu'ii I', niiiior lt('«j:iiis. But rolardod 

 llowors inay sometinies be found on spots wiiore tho snow has lastod 

 lonij;or thaii usually. 



Allhoiiijh 1 saw hiit two specimens I sliall nunition this prohal)lo 

 hybrid here, not only to call the attention of lator colloctors to it. but 

 also becauso so vcry few hybrids of arctic piants are yet known. 



Plantac sat graciliores quam P. grand iflor ae , cfiam aliquanlulnni 

 ntinorcs quam P. min or is specimina ejusdem loci. Folia len aes, non 

 nitescentia, late ovato-eHiptica, foba P. minoris similantia. CoroUa 

 major quam P. minoris^ miner quam P. grandifolia sicut ulriusque 

 rosaceo-albida. Petala late ovata. Stylus rectus, germine subduplo longior, 

 superne dilatatus. Stigma quinquelobatum. 



Most of the above named characters do certainly agree with tliose 

 (»t l\ media, this species being, however, a tall plant of the woods in 

 Europe, not occurring in Greenland. A hybrid between P. rolundijolia 

 and P. miner has been observed in northern Fennia by Kihlman. 



XXXIIl. Rhodoraceae. 



Ledum. 



The History of the interpretation of the Greenland 

 Ledum-iorms (By M. P. P.). 



LiNNAEUS in liis "Species plantarunr'. 1753 labdlcd a shrub, com- 

 mon in wooded bogs in Sweden, Ledum palustre, before his nonien- 

 clature often cailed Rosmarinus sylrestris. The plant was well-known 

 to the Swedish people for its fragrance and it was used as a substitute 

 for hops in brevving or as an insecticide. The name given by Linnaeus, 

 has been in later literature applicd to the same plant from other parts 

 of Europe, and C. Friis Rottboll determined in I TtiO the Ledum sent 

 to hini from Greenland as L. palustre L. (Aet. llafn. X. 1770. p. 441). 

 Although Kotthøll's piants do not exist, \ve may infer from the collec- 

 tors mentioned by hini, that the planls in question belonged to the nar- 

 row leaved form (L. decumbens). 



Al llic same time another Ledum was brought to Europe by several 

 travellers from Greenland, Labrador, New P'oniidbind and various parts 

 af Canad;i. Il was cultivated in most of the leading botanical gardens, 

 and it became soon generally known under its trivial name "Labrador 

 tea" or under the gardener's name ''Ledum latijolium'\ being from 

 the first what we now call a nomen nudum. The first valid description 



