1898-1901 No. 2,1 VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. ~ 79 



an opportunity of examining allowed, and I have very little to add to 

 his statement, except the appearance of the species in some of the 

 places that I visited. 



He has given preference to the specific name of R. Brown, as the 

 synchronous one of Richardson is said to he referable to B. alpina, 

 as appears from a specimen, collected by Richardson, now in the Nat. 

 Hist. Mus. This I have myself seen and can only verify Gelert's 

 classification, but I have also seen another specimen in the Copenhagen 

 herbarium, which is labelled (in the handwriting of Lange): "Braya 

 purpurascens (R. Br.) Ledeb., Braya glabella Richards., ex expeditione 

 Franklini". It contains two plants, of which one has very young pods, 

 and the other is in so bad a state of preservation, that it is hardly 

 possible to determine. As far as I can judge, however, Lange seems 

 to be right. If it be so, Richardson must have collected both, and 

 made no difference between them, which also seems very probable, for 

 it would be rather curious if he had not found the species which some- 

 what further north, is the only one of the genus. I am most inclined 

 to think, that he has indeed meant the same plant as R. Brown at the 

 same time described from the first PARRY-expedition. Still, I think 

 that the name purpurascens must be retained, as there is no doubt 

 about its meaning, rather than the ambiguous B. glabella. 



B. purpurascens grows principally in open clay soil, where some- 

 times it will appear in abundance; less often single individuals are found 

 in a closer vegetation. Flowers from the beginning of July, and fruits 

 abundantly. 



Occurrence. North coast: Floeberg Beach (Hart). Grinnell 

 Land: St. Patrick's Bay, Discovery Harbour, Cape Collinson, Norman 

 Lockyer Island (Hart). (Absent from the Hayes Sound region ?). South 

 coast: Fram Fjord (1640); Harbour Fjord, many places (2388, 2555); 

 Muskox Fjord (2118, 2137, 2148); Goose Fjord, common in the inner 

 part (3326). Western coast: Reindeer Cove, Lands End, between Eids- 

 fjord and Bauman Fjord, Coal Bay. 



Distribution: Northeastern and Northwestern Greenland, Arctic 

 American Archipelago, Arctic America, Bering Sea Region, Arctic Siberia, 

 Novaja Semlja, Spitsbergen. 



