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



one of A. flexuosa, if llie specimens had been allowed to develop 

 further. 



This form perhaps deserved a name, but as my materiel is so small 

 and little-satisfying, I will not establish any new variety on it. 



By this find, the area of A. flexuosa becomes extended nearly 10° 

 to the north of the highest northern places, whence it is previously re- 

 corded (Kolguev Island, and Godhavn (69° 14') in Danish Greenland). 

 However it grows also in a locality between the latter and the Ellesmere- 

 land one; Nathorst's Aira from Ivsugigsok near Cape York (76° 8') 

 has proved to be the same as mine from Fram Harbour. Probably it 

 is a pioneer of the species which has reached so far north where the 

 plant can hardly develop fruit. The year 1899 was rather favorable, 

 but still the plant had only just begun to show its panicles in the be- 

 ginning of August, and, as there were no old ones from preceding years 

 to be seen in the mats of leaves, I presume that the flowering is rare, 

 and that ripe fruit is very seldom developed. If that is so, it must 

 have little chance of spreading, notwithstanding the abundant develop- 

 ment of the vegetative system. The dense mats which it forms, are 

 such as not to be easily overlooked, but still I may have done so, for 

 instance during the excursions early in the summer, to the interior of 

 Hayes Sound. 



Occurrence. East coast: at the largest pond on the North side 

 of Fram Harbour (1412). 



Distribution: Southern East Greenland, West Greenland, La- 

 brador, Canada, New Foundland and down to North Carolina and 

 Tennessee, North-western America, Siberia (not in the arctic parts), 

 Himalayas, Caucasus, all over Europe, Faeroes, Iceland, Southern South 

 America, Falkland Islands. 



Arctagrostis latifolia, (R. Br.) Griseb. 



Colpodium latifolium, R, Brown, Chlor. Melv., 1823; Lange, Consp. Fl. Groenl. ; 

 Nathorst, N. W. Gronl. ; Hart, Bot. Br. Pol. Exp.; Simmons, Prel. Rep. et 

 Bot. Arb. ; Hooker, Fl. Bor. Amer. ; Kjellman, in Vegaexp. ; Feilden, Fl. pi. 

 Nov. Zeml. ; Andersson & Hesselman, Spetsb. kiirlv. ; Ardagrostis latifolia, 

 Grisebach, in Ledebour, Fl. Ross.; Gelert, in Ostenfeld, Fl. Arct.; Kruuse, 

 List E. Greenl; Greely, Rep.; Britton & Brown, 111. FL; Macoun, PL 

 Pribilof. 



Fig. Fl. Dan., T. 23il; Ostenfeld, 1. c, fig. 82. 



The Ellesmereland specimens generally are not very large, but in 

 especially favorable years such as 1902, they may reach a height of 

 15 inches or more, and the panicles become more open. Then the 



