ARCTIC PLANTS PROM THE DOVREFJBLD, NORWAY. ^9 



hermaphrodite flowers on some individuals and pseudo-herma- 

 phrodite flowers on others. 



Ranunculus glacialis, L., also occurs in the Alps as well as 

 the arctic regions, but that it is a true arctic plant there can 

 be no doubt. It was a most wonderful sight to see great carpeta 

 of this covering the ground wherever the snow had melted or was 

 melting, for often it would be seen actually pushing itself 

 through the rough broken edges of icy shelves. It also varied 

 from pure white to a sort of dusky brown, passing through all 

 the stages of pink and crimson. 



Eanunculus nivalis, L., occurred in similar situations in many 

 Instances, but it might also be found on drier ground some- 

 what further away from the melting snow. It is of intensely 

 Arctic habit, its southern limit being the Hardanger tract. 



Eanunculus pygmaus, L., has much the same habit as the 

 foregoing, but, as its name indicates, it is veiy much smaller in 

 size. There is a hybrid, however, found growing along with 

 them, which links the two. 



Eanunculus hyperboreus, L., is another truly arctic species, 

 found creeping about in muddy places where the glacial water 

 has not found an outlet. 



Papaver nudicaule, L. — When in Kristiania a very terrible 

 tale was told to us by a lady there, who said that this plant was 

 almost extirpated from the countiy by the rapacity of collectors. 

 It was only to be found in the Dovrefjeld, she said, and even 

 there it would soon be a thing of the past. She told how she 

 had been at the Kougsvold when a Swedish botanist (the Swedes 

 stand in about the same relation to the Norwegians as the 

 English do to the Irish) came and ravished the place of all its 

 rarest treasures. In some out>of-the-way corner he managed 

 to discover a single plant of this yellow poppy, and, as my 

 friend remarked, he was very happy, and carried it off as the 

 last of its race and another evidence of the submergence of 

 Norway. We naturally felt a righteous indignation against 

 this vandal, especially as this was one of the plants we very 

 much wanted to see. We foimd, however, when we got to the 

 Kongsvold that our wrath was just a little premature, as the 

 last plant had not been removed by many a hundred, though, 

 like others which we found there in tremendous profusion, it is 

 no doubt a plant of comparatively rare and local occurrence. 



