1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 113 



small-flowered R. nivalis, but paler yellow than in that species. Sepals 

 more or less touched with violet or purple, covered with long white 

 hairs, not turned down and rather durable. Petals of the same length 

 as the sepals, or at most one third longer, narrow obovate or even 

 narrow obcordate, when they are emarginate. The head of fruits is at 

 the beginning nearly spherical, later, during the development of the 

 fruit, it becomes conical or almost cylindrical. The achenes are short, 

 thick, more or less tapering towards the base, with a short beak. 



From small forms of R. sulphureus and R. nivalis, the present 

 species is easily distinguished ^ by its pale flowers, the white hairy 

 sepals and peduncle, the short and narrow petals, and by the form and 

 the ciliation of the leaves. From R. pygmaeus, it differs in the hair 

 covering of the stem and petioles, as well as of the peduncle and 

 sepals, in its much larger flowers and longer petals, and in the stem, 

 which is erect even in the fruiting stage, when that of R. pygmaeus 

 is bent archlike towards the ground or hes prostrate. Also the head 

 of fruits of the latter is more rounded, and the achenes are longer 

 beaked. 



R. Sahinei prefers the fields of stiff clay, that are so widely di- 

 stributed along the south-western fjords. It flowered rather late, at 

 least in 1901, when I had the best opportunity of observing it, and 

 only few developed fruits were seen, but as Hart speaks of it as 

 flowering earlier in Grinnell Land than ,,the true R. nivalis", that may 

 be set to the account of the unfavorable summer of 1901. 



Occurrence. North coast: Dumbbell Bay, Floeberg Beach and 

 other places (leg. Feilden!). Grinnell Land: Discovery Harbour (leg. 

 Hart!). South coast: Muskox Fjord (4227, 4228); inner part of the 

 Goose Fjord, Yellow Hill (3788), East of 3rd winter quarters (4229, 



' My friend Professor Lagerheim of the Stockholm University, has sent me a few 

 specimens of an interesting Ranunculus, found by him on Akselfjeld near 

 Svendborg, at Mulselven, Norway, wich he had at first taken for B. Sahinei, 

 to which it indeed shows a certain resemblance. After seeing some of my 

 R Sahinei specimens, however, he had to alter this classification, and later 

 he sent me the specimens, that were collected in the locality mentioned, 

 August 13, 1893, and were still found in full flower, when R. nivalis and R. 

 pygmaeus which also grew there, were everywhere in fruit. 



The plant indeed, considerably resembles R- Sahinei but yet differs in 

 some important points (shape of the leaves, colour of the hair-covering, 

 &c.). It comes most near to R. nivalis, but I am most inclined to refer it to 

 the hybrid between that species and R. pygmaeus, which J. M. Norman has re- 

 corded from the same neighbourhood. It agrees well with his description of 

 the hybrid (Florae arcticae Norvegiae species et formae, &c., Kristiania Vid. 

 Selsk. Forh., 1893). 



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