496 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 63 



from the students of the Alpine, and we are often at a loss to know 

 whether certain species in the Rocky Mountains, for instance, are con- 

 specific with similar arctic species or are merely close relatives. 



Fortmiately, the recent trend among students of the arctic-alpine 

 flora everywhere is to study only a very small group of closely related 

 species, but on a very broad geographical basis taking in, if possible, 

 the entire worldwide range. Only after this has been done for all 

 the major problem groups can we begin to sift out the numerous 

 superfluous names and come to a real understanding of the origins 

 and affinities of arctic-alpine species. Of especial personal interest is 

 the question of the overall affinities of the Alaskan arctic-alpine flora 

 to the Rocky Mountain alpine flora and to the Eurasian arctic-alpine 

 flora. Rydberg studied the Rocky Mountain flora, Hulten has been 

 studying the Alaskan flora, and the Russians have largely reserved 

 to themselves the study of the arctic-alpine flora of the vast Siberian 

 region, which comes to within a matter of miles of the Alaskan Arctic. 

 We have hardly begun to integrate our knowledge of these regions, 

 to say nothing of attempting to study their floras through the same 

 eyes. When the latter becomes possible, I am convinced that we will 

 find an even greater unity among these regions than is presently sus- 

 pected. The signal contributions of Hulten and Polunin have pointed 

 the way, we hope, to a new era of international cooperation in arctic- 

 alpine botanical research. Let us also hope that we have begun to see 

 the end of national species and that more international species are just 

 around the corner, speaking biologically of course and not politically. 



LITERATURE CITED 



BOCHEB, TYGE W. 



1960. Experimental and cytological studies on plant species. V. The Camp- 

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 4, pp. 1-69. 

 Clausen, Jens. 



1951. Stages in the evolution of plant species. 206 pp. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell 

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 Clements, F. E. 



1916. Plant succession : an analysis of the development of vegetation. 

 Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ. 242, 512 pp. 

 Combes, R. 



1946. La forme des v^g^taux et le milieu. Coll. Armand Collin, No. 240, 

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 Hulten, Eric. 



1937. Outline of the history of arctic and boreal biota during the Quaternary 



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 1962. The circumpolar plants, I : vascular cryptogams, conifers, mono- 

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 Manton, I. 



1953. The cytological evolution of the fern flora of Ceylon. Symposia Soc. 

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