1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 4^ 



seen a specimen of this in the Copenhagen herbarium, collected in Spits- 

 bergen by Th. Fries and determined as P. pulchella, but afterwards 

 referred by Rydberg to P. Sommerfelti. That it is what Fries took it 

 for, a small, slender and almost glabrous specimen of P. pulchella, is 

 obvious. The principal character which should separate P. Sommer- 

 felti from P. pulchella is, according to Rydberg, 1. c, p. 91, that the 

 terminal leaflet should be petiolate in the former, but sessile in the 

 latter. But this character is worthless, as many specimens of P. pul- 

 chella, and especially of the large and luxuriant (i elatior, Lange, have 

 long petiolate terminal leaflet, among them also some revised by Ryd- 

 berg himself. When it is further observed, that Lehmann has originally 

 described it (Pug. IX) on specimens from "terris borealibus — — — 

 ni fallor a cl. Keilhavio lectis", and that later he has quoted Vahl 

 and HoLBOLL as collectors, without mentioning anything more about its 

 home (Revis. Potent., p. 37), as well as that it is never found again in 

 Greenland, and that it has been regarded in Spitsbergen of old, as a 

 mere form of P. pulchella (Nathorst, Nya bidr., does not mention it), 

 one may easily understand, that it cannot here be the question of any 

 distinct species. Consequently, it is astonishing to find it treated as 

 such, in a monograph of the genus. In Ellesmereland, I mostly saw 

 P. pulchella in clayey plains with open vegetation, sometimes also in 

 the rich slopes of rookeries etc. It begins to flower about the begin- 

 ning of July, and fruits abundantly. 



Occurrence. North coast: Floeberg Beach(!), Dumbell Harbour (!) 

 Grinnell Land: Discovery Harbour (!), (Greely); probably in other 

 localities southward along the coast. Hayes Sound district, sparingly: 

 interior of Beitstad Fjord (489); Fram Harbour (659) ; Cocked Hat Island 

 (1267). South coast, scarce but for the Goose Fjord, where it grew in 

 most clay plains: Fram Fjord (1638), Muskox Fjord (2118); Goose Fjord 

 localities: Gull Cove (rookery, 2895), Castle Rock (3964), Yellow Hill 

 (3579, 3596), Midday Knoll (4215), east of 4th quarters (3489), great 

 valley at the bottom (3268), Gallows Point (2990). West coast: Lands 

 End, between Eidsfjord and Baumann Fjord, Coal Bay. 



Distribution: Northern East and West Greenland, Arctic American 

 Archipelago, Arctic America, Alaska, East Siberia, Wrangel Land, Novaja 

 Semlja, Spitsbergen. 



