294 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1934 



Sir Joseph Hooker wrote that " of the plants found north of the 

 Arctic Circle very few are absolutely or almost confined to frigid 

 latitudes (only 50 out of 762 or so) ; the remainder, so far as their 

 southern distribution is concerned, may be referred to two classes; 

 one consisting of plants widely diffused over the plains of northern 

 Europe, Asia, and America, of which there are upwards of 500; the 

 other of plants more or less confined to the alps of these countries, 

 and still more southern regions, of which there are only about 200." 



Essentially the same is true among the butterflies. 



Professor Griggs has written that the vegetation of the Arctic re- 

 sembles most closely that of waste lands — the vegetation of recently 

 ploughed fields, earth slides, freshly exposed gravel banks, etc. " Such 

 common weeds as the sheep sorrel, the common horsetail, chickweed, 

 winter cress, rib grass, Kentucky blue grass, cuckoo flower, tall but- 

 tercup, fireweed, and Rhode Island bentgrass range far north in the 

 Arctic, some of them to the north coast of Greenland." 



The general aspect of the Arctic butterfly fauna is very much the 

 same. The butterflies of the Arctic are representatives of types that 

 are elsewhere characteristic of rough and forbidding country, waste 

 lands, or more or less arid regions, or at least that occur in such un- 

 favorable situations. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES 



(All of the specimens figured are in the collection of the United States National 



Museum) 



Plate 1 



Figure 1. Brenthis frigga, Tornea, Finland (Barnes collection). 



2. Same, under side. 



3. Brenthis freija, Helsingfors, Finland (Barnes collection). 



4. Same, under side. 



5. Brenthis chariclea montinus, Mount Washington, New Hampshire 



(Barnes collection). 



6. Same, under side. 



7. Brenthis chariclea arctica, Greenland (Barnes collection). 



8. Same, under side. 



9. Brenthis aphirape triclaris, Atlin, northern British Columbia (Barnes 



collection ) . 

 10. Same, under side. 



Plate 2 



Figure 11. Brenthis frigga saga, Kettle Rapids, Nelson River, on the Hudson 

 r>ay Railroad. July S, 1D14 (Baines c<.illectiou) . 



12. Same, under side. 



13. Brenthis polaris, Okak, Labrador, August 16, 1923 (Barnes collec- 



tion). 



14. Same, under side. 



