168 H. G. SIMMONS. [sec. arct. exp. fram 



P. cenisia is one of the most common grasses in Ellesmereland 

 and is rarely lacking in somewhat moist places, in slopes and rookeries; 

 and, if only the water supply is sufficient, it is commonly found also in 

 rockledges and in depressions of gravel- or clay-fields. Generally the 

 culms stand more or less isolated and the creeping stolons are well 

 developed, but in a dense vegetation it may go over to a rather 

 caespitose mode of growth, with short stolons only (2653, 4000). I 

 think that such forms have led to the statements about P. alpina 

 mentioned above. I had made the same mistake myself during my 

 stay in the Harbour Fjord, but afterwards it proved that there was no 

 P. alpina in the collection. 



In Ellesmereland P. cenisia is not often proliferous as it seems; I 

 have only a few specimens which I think ought to be referred here. 

 Such forms doubtless are comprised in P. stricta, Lindeberg, Resa i 

 Norge; Gelert, 1. c, p. 122 refers this as well as P. colpodea, Th. 

 Fries, Till. Spetsb. Fan. Fl, p. 138, to P. pratensis, as "viviparous'' 

 forms of it. I do not indeed doubt that forms of P. pratensis are com- 

 prised under that name; as I have examined the collection of "P. s^Wda" 

 in the herbarium of the Botanical Museum of Lund, revised by Lindeberg 

 himself, I think, I can assert that there are also forms of P. cenisia 

 and P. laxa, probably also of P. glaiica included. Some bear a rather 

 considerable resemblance to the form wich I have above referred to the 

 latter species as its proliferous state. It is, however, hardly possible to 

 form a precise opinion about the affinity of such forms, as the different 

 parts of the spikelet becomes so entirely altered when it gets proliferous. 



Occurrence. North coast (Hart). Grinnell Land, common as 

 far as may be judged by the statements of Hart. Hayes Sound region, 

 common; specimens from: Skraling Island (1379), Cape Viele (864), 

 Eskimopolis (837). Cape Rutherford (303, 449), Fram Harbour (289, 1108), 

 Bedford Pim Island (279, 439, 1124, 1257). In the Stein collection from 

 Weyprecht Islands (Holm). South coast, common; specimens from: 

 Fram Fjord (1603), Harbour Fjord (2157, 2172, 2242, 2541, 2589, 2653, 

 4000, 4003), Goose Fjord (3432, 3490, 3497, 3641). West coast: Rein- 

 deer Cove; Braskerud Plain (701, leg. Isachsen). The proliferous form 

 from Seagull Rock in the Harbour Fjord (2579) and Falcon Cliff in the 

 Goose Fjord (2881). 



Distribution: all over the Arctic Regions and also in Labrador, 

 Rocky Mountains, islands of the Bering Sea, Kamshatka, Altai, Hima- 

 layas, Scandinavian and Central European mountains, Iceland. 



