PLANTS IN ARCTIC-ALPINE ENVIRONMENT — SHETLER 495 



hand in the development of certain characteristic arctic-alpine fea- 

 tures, but also that the arctic-apline race is a real thing. Ideally, we 

 need transplant studies in every last species before we can decide 

 whether it is a widespread tolerant species, a physiologically differ- 

 entiated race of some widespread species, which may or may not also be 

 morphologically differentiated, or a fully isolated endemic species, 

 incapable of thriving under other than arctic-alpine conditions. We 

 will have to wait many years, however, before this sort of information 

 will be available. Meanwhile, we must continue as in the past to infer 

 what the real situation is from descriptive data. 



Using the transplant work that has already been done as a guide- 

 line, we are now able to infer much more safely from morphological 

 and phytogeographical data and methods just what the answers to 

 the questions posed here really are from group to group. As our 

 knowledge of distributions increases, for example, we approach a 

 fairly complete picture of the species that are found only in the 

 Arctic- Alpine, the endemics, and it seems safe to assume that their 

 very restriction to this environment speaks to peculiar physiological 

 adaptation. We have a wealth of descriptive information available on 

 arctic-alpine plants, especially on the distribution of the species and 

 their morphological varieties, thanks in large measure to the pioneer- 

 ing work of Hulten (1937, 1962) and Polunin (1959). These papers 

 and others of Hulten's are truly monumental in the scope of the task 

 they attempt and in large measure already have achieved. They have 

 set a comprehensive groundwork for all future studies of arctic-alpine 

 plants, particularly arctic plants. 



Let us come finally to the present status of botanical research in 

 the Arctic- Alpine. Most of the known flora of this region throughout 

 the world was described before the advent of experimental and 

 cytological methods, which have turned our minds to the problems of 

 polyj^loidy and ecological (physiological) races. Furthermore, this 

 descriptive work was done in widely separated quarters of the world 

 by botanists who not only held sometimes divergent views but were 

 able to communicate infrequently at best with each other. For one 

 reason or another, many of the efforts were strictly national efforts, 

 stopping at the limits of national boundaries. The plants, on the 

 other hand, know no national boundaries, and, as we have already seen, 

 many are essentially circumpolar. (Consequently, time and again 

 the same species has got described from different areas by new and 

 different names. One could recapitulate numerous case histories, 

 hardly necessary here. As a result, however, we have come to have 

 many more names than species in the arctic-alpine flora. The situa- 

 tion is confounded even more by the fact that we have lacked not 

 only m^emational, but m^ranational coordination. In North Amer- 

 ica, for example, the students of the Arctic have been largely different 



