1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 175 



Hill (3577), Falcon Cliff (3789). West coast: Lands End, between Eids- 

 fjord and Baumann Fjord, Coal Bay. 



Distribution: Northern East Greenland (cf. above), Arctic Ameri- 

 can Archipelago, Arctic America, Sitcha, Unalaschka, Pribilof Islands, 

 Arctic Siberia, Novaja Semlja, Spitsbergen (?). The main species is 

 spread far to the south, and even in Southern South America, Tas- 

 mania, and New Zealand. 



Aira fiexuosa, L. 



A. fiexuosa, Linnaeus, Sp. plant, 1753; Gelert, in Ostenfeld, FI. Arct.; Lange, 

 Consp. F'l. GroenL; Simmons, Bot. Arb.; Hooker, F1. Bor. Amer. ; Feilden 

 & Geld ART, Fl. Kolguev; A. caespitosa var. brevifolia, Nathorst, N. W. 

 Gronl., ex p. ; Deschampsia fiexuosa, Britton & Brown, HI. Fl. ; Ledebour, 

 Fl. Ross. 



Fig. Fl. Dan., T. 157, 1322. 



The form in which A. flexuosa appears in its only known locality 

 in Ellesmereland is rather peculiar and different from its southern forms. 

 In its matlike growth, with the numerous rather long leaves, it is 

 reminiscent to a certain degree of A. setacea, Huds., but the leaves 

 are flat and the resemblance is quite limited to the mode of growlh. 

 It shows more resemblance to A. fiexuosa var. montana f. pallida, 

 Berlin, Karlv. sv. exp. Gronl, p. 77, described from Ivigtut in southern 

 Greenland. Equally with this it has a straight awn which is included 

 within the glumes on account of its shortness. This, however, may be 

 due to the young state in which the specimens had to be collected as 

 we were to leave the place where it grew. During the whole summer 

 I had given my attention to the large mats of the beautifully green 

 grass, which was, however, sterile and could not be determined. When 

 I was obhged to take specimens of it, August 4, 1899, it had just begun 

 to show its panicles. 



The dense mats, growing among moss at the edge of a pond, 

 consisted of numerous sterile shoots with long, narrow, soft and lax 

 leaves. The culms at the time mentioned, were quite short, even the 

 most developed had not yet brought the base of the panicles above the 

 top of the leaves. The panicle-branches were almost glabrous, 2 — 3 

 from each node; the spikelets about a quarter of an inch long, the 

 glumes reaching about two-thirds of the length of the spikelet. Gener- 

 ally one flower only was developed in the spikelet; both pales had 

 awns reaching to their top or thereabout. The awn was straight and 

 not twisted, but probably it might have become more Hke the typical 



