236 EuG. Warming. 



Melandrium apetalum agrees in its main points with 

 Viscaria (Sylvén). 



Winter- stage. All the buds are open, and the youngest 

 foliage-leaves are protected during the winter by the older, 

 withering leaves. How many of these remain green during the 

 winter, depends evidently on the prevaihng conditions, for 

 instance, if the plants are snow- covered during the winter, 

 or are uncovered and perhaps exposed to cold and desic- 

 cative winds. Statements made by botanists regarding the 

 appearance of one and the same species during winter, there- 

 fore vary somewhat. As regards Viscaria I made the follow- 

 ing note in West Greenland, on June 28th, at the begin- 

 ning of spring: "passes the winter in a green condition". 

 Sylvén (p. 291) says the rosette of the young plant passes 

 through the winter "in an open rosette- stage". As regards 

 Melandrium apetalum Sylvén says that the rosette- shoot of 

 the young plant appears to pass through the winter in a 

 more or less green condition, and regarding Wahlbergella 

 angustiflora from Lapmark: the plants reared under cul- 

 tivation remained green during the winter (p. 290). 



Foliage leaves which have remained green during the 

 winter, undoubtedly die immediately upon the commence- 

 ment of the following spring. The old, dead leaves may 

 persist for a long time, until they gradually disappear, the 

 cold Arctic climate having no great putrefactive power. 



Lateral shoots may be somewhat arching, or even 

 slightly prostrate, at their base. This appears to be most 

 decided in Dianthus superbus in which, from the mesocorm, 

 there may proceed obliquely- placed branches with elongated 

 internodes on which there may even occur, here and there, 

 slender adventitious roots, but it appears to be absolutely 

 certain that no vegetative propagation takes place. Blytt 

 (Norges Flora, p. 1073) mentions also these lateral shoots: 



