445 



THE EARLIEST EECORD OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 



By Theo. Holm. 



[The following paper, contributed by Mr. Theodore Holm to the 

 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (x. 103-107, 

 June 15th, 1896), is especially interesting at the present time ; 

 and as, from its place of publication, it is not likely to come under 

 the notice of Em-opean botanists, we think it well to reproduce it 

 in these pages. A comparison of Mr. Holm's paper with Martens' 

 original shows tbat the determinations are very carefully done. — 

 Ed. Journ. Bot.] 



Through the courtesy of Dr. Edw. L. Greene my attention has 

 been called to the fact that our knowledge of the Arctic flora is not 

 of recent date. The invaluable botanical library which Dr. Greene 

 has accumulated, and which is now located in the Catholic University 

 in Washington, D.C., contains a vast number of old books, which 

 are truly a great boon to the working botanist. It was in this 

 library that Dr. Greene showed me a short chapter in Ray's 

 Historia Plantar urn, ■■'- wherein is enumerated and described some 

 plants collected in Spitzbergen more than two hundred years ago. 



The chapter referred to is headed " Plants Spitzbergenses a 

 Frederico Martens Hamburgensi in Itinerario suo observatse 

 delineata3 et descriptre." When I examined the names "Aloefolia 

 fiorum capituUs rotundis,'' &c., and the accompanying descriptions, 

 which latter might just as well have represented almost any plant 

 outside the Arctic, I felt discouraged. The title of the chapter, 

 however, gave the clue, i.e. the original record by Martens, who 

 was said to have not only described these plants, but even to have 

 figured them. 



This is the work which Ray mentions in a letter to Dr. Hans 

 Sloane,t where he expresses his great admiration of the careful 

 observations made by Martens. Martens' own account appeared 

 in his famous little book Sjntzbergische oder Groenlandische Reise 

 Besclireihung gethan imjahr 1671. J Martens was the surgeon of the 

 ship 'Jonas im Wallfisch,' which got as far north as the 81st degree 

 of latitude. From here he visited the north-western part of Spitz- 

 bergen, from whence he brought home several specimens of animals 

 and plants. 



Many of the observations in Martens' book show that he was 

 possessed of unusual energy and skill as a scientific traveller. His 

 voyage was made during a period when Spitzbergen was annually 

 visited by a large number of whalers from various countries in 

 Europe. So great was the traffic, that from 1670 to 1710 not less 

 than 2289 sbips visited this island, kiUing the vast number of nearly 



* Vol. iii., Appendix (1704), p. 226. 



t Correspondence of John Ray, edited by Edwin Lankester, Loudon, 1848, 

 p. 474. 



\ Hamburg, 1675. 



