1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 107 



leaves. The uppermost stem leaf sometimes has only three lobes. The 

 stem leaves and young basal ones are often minutely hairy. The peduncle 

 is clad with whitish, somewhat adpressed short hairs, as also the sepals, 

 that have a touch of purple or violet. They are pointed outwards or 

 downwards in the open flower and soon fall. The flower is rather 

 large, often over an inch broad. The petals are rather pale yellow, 

 delicately veined in violet or purple at the back, broadly obovate, with 

 rather long claw. The stamens are rather few. The head of pistills 

 is nearly ovate in the flowering state, but later, the torus is stretched 

 so as to become cyHndrical at least in the terminal, best-developed 

 flower, where the pistils are very numerous. This is an essential cha- 

 racter, which separates R. affinis from R. auricomus and as far as 

 could be judged, from the rather young specimens in the Linnaean 

 herbai-ium also from R. pedatifidus. The achenes are somewhat oblique, 

 a little compressed, indistinctly keeled, sparsely and shortly hairy (in my 

 specimens, but this character is variable, especially the asiatic form 

 amoenus has them densely hairy). The beak is short, rather coarse, 

 and curved backwards. 



The only time I found this species, August 8, 1900, it bore flowers 

 as well as fruit in all stages abundantly. It grew in rock ledges below 

 a nesting place of the glaucous gull, in a southern exposure and in 

 richly manured soil. I am inclined to think, therefore, that the R. 

 affinis which Greely, Kep., p. 12, mentions as growing in moist, 

 loamy soil, can hardly be the right one. It would also be very curious, 

 if such a conspicuous plant, which must immediately catch the eye, had 

 escaped Hart. Now, indeed. Hart records a "Ranunculus auricomus, 

 L. [R. affinis, Br.)", but as he also refers to it the "i?. nivalis", "floribus 

 minoribus, pilis calycinis palhdioribus" of Oliver (List fl. pi.), and more- 

 over refers also a plant from Disco to it, I think that none of these 

 statements can be right. Lange, 1. c. II, p. 255, says about the Disco 

 specimens, "e descriptione non cum R. affinis R. Br. convenire, sed R. 

 nivalis proximus esse videtur", which doubtless is right, as no affinis 

 specimens from Disco exist in London, and the variety of Oliver is, in 

 fact, R. Sabinei, R. Br. as the specimens show. 



Occurrence. South coast: Seagull Cliff in the Harbour Fjord 

 (2595). 



Distribution. This is rather difficult to give, because of the 

 muddled synonymic, the species, however, seems to be found in the 

 following countries: Northern East Greenland, West Greenland (only 

 in Isortok and Foulke Fjords), Arctic American Archipelago (specimens 



