1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 125 



Occurrence. North coast, (Hart). Grinnell Land: Discovery 

 Harbour (Hart, Greely), north of Princess Marie Bay (Hart). Hayes 

 Sound region, common, specimens from SkriUing Island (1349), Cape 

 Rutherford (321), Fram Harbour (1102), Bedford Pim Island (267). South 

 coast: common, specimens from Fram Fjord (1G46), Walrus Fjord (2112). 

 West coast: everywhere along the Hell Gate to Lands End, between 

 Eidsfjord and Baumann Fjord, Coal Bay, Braskerud Plain (704, leg. 

 Isachsen). 



Distribution: Northern East Greenland, West Greenland, Arctic 

 American Ai'chipelago, Arctic America, Labrador, Nova Scotia, down to 

 Northern New England, Minnesota and California, Rocky Mountains, 

 Alaska, Islands of the Bering Sea, in Asia down to Kamshatka, Baical 

 mountains, Altai, Arctic Russia, Novaja Semlja, Spitsbergen, Franz 

 Joseph Land, Finmark. 



Melandrium affine, J. Vahl. 



Lychnis affinis, J. Vahl, in Fries, Mantissa 3, 1842; Hart, Bot. Br. Pol. Exp.; 

 Brixton & Brown, III. Fl.; L. apetala y involucrata, Chamisso & Schlechten- 

 DAL, PI. Romanzoff. (?) ; Melandrium affine, J. Vahl, in Liebman, Fl. Dan. 40, 

 1843; M. involucratum (i affine, Rohrbach, Syn. Lychn. ; Lange, Consp. Fl. 

 Groenl.; Kruuse, List E. Greenl.; Wahlbergella affinis, Fries, Sum. veg. 

 Scand.; Nathorst, N. W. Gronl.; Kjellman & Lundstrom, Fan. Nov. Semi.; 

 Andersson & Hesselman, Spetsb. karlv.; Lychnis trifiora, Fl. Dan., T. 2173, 

 non R. Brown. 



Fig. Fl. Dan., T. 2173. 



The limits of the genera Melandrium and Wahlbergella are so 

 little defined, that it seems best to follow Rohrbach, 1. c, who has 

 united them (so also does Pax in Engler & Prantl, Pflanzenfam.). The 

 present species comes very near to M. triflorum, (R. Br.) Vahl, but 

 must still, I think, be separated from it. Also from M. apetalum it 

 is not easily distinguished where specimens with young fruit are con- 

 cerned. The seeds give a sure distinguishing mark, and flowering speci- 

 mens also of M. affine are easily classified by their erect flowers, much 

 larger white petals and denser pubescence. 



In my opinion, the arctic-american form is not to be separated 

 from the scandinavian-Spitsbergen-siberian one, which is not biennial 

 as Rohrbach (1. c, p. 216) records but perennial. The petals vary 

 rather much in both, from entire to deeply emarginate. Therefore there 

 is no reason for that division of the species which Rohrbach has made, 

 probably misled by Ruprecht who, in Symb. pi. Ross., p. 24—25, has 

 etablished two species, Wahlbergella vel Gastrolychnis angustiflora 



