372 Fr. J. Mathiesen. 



tion ol' the latter is distinctly seen in Fig. 5, C; the figure 

 is drawn from living material from the Botanical Garden in 

 Copenhagen. 



According to M. Porsild, near its northern limit in Green- 

 land it flowers late and even sets fruit; but it is only in 

 favourable, dry autumns, wdthout too miich frost, that its 

 seeds ripen. Unripe fruits live through the winter, but perish 

 without developing further. The structure of the shoots ex- 

 plains, as in V. alpina (Th. Resvoll), the late flowering. 

 There was, however, ripe fruit to hånd from all localities. 

 Kruuse (1906, p. 248) in the Angmagsahk-district notes 

 "abundant ripe fruit". 



Geographical Distribution according to Lange: 

 Greenland, the Ural Mountains, Lapland, Finmark, Norway, 

 Iceland, Great Britain, the Alps and the Pyrenees. Besides 

 this it is recorded from the Færoes. Its certainly known north 

 limit in West Greenland is 70°17' on the continent (Vaj- 

 gattet), from 70° — 67° it occurs in isolated specimens only, 

 and not until further southwards is it common; consequently, 

 in Greenland it belongs to the southern types (M. Porsild). 

 In East Greenland it occurs as far north as the Scoresby- 

 Sound-district (Hartz and Kruuse, 1911). 



According to Warming (1888) and Rosenvinge (1896 

 (II)) in West Greenland the species grows in willow-copses, 

 birch-copses and on "herb-slopes", and in piaces whence 

 snow melts early it can ascend as high up in the moun- 

 tains as 750 metres (Lange, 1880: in grass-covered, open 

 piaces, in rocky clefts). M. Porsild informs me in con- 

 firmation of this that its natural habitat is the edge of the 

 willow-copse, there it grows on warm, sunny slopes which 

 are not too dry; the species thrives but badly when over- 

 shadowed; it needs snow-covering throughout the winter 

 but must be early freed from snow; at its north limit it 



