342 



The earliest flowering periods, as far as I know, are the 

 middle of May in the Færoes (Ostenfeld, Plantevæksten paa 

 Færøerne. Kbhv., 1906, p. 39) and the beginning and middle 

 of June in Jan Mayen and Iceland (Herbarium-material and 

 Ddsén, Beilr. z. Fl. d. 1. Jan Mayen, lîih. Kgl. Sv. Vet, Akad. 

 Handl. Bd. 26, Afd. IH, 1900, p. 5). Plants in flower have been 

 observed on the 7th of September in Arctic Norway (Norman) 

 and on the 16th of September, 1892, at Angmasalik in East 

 Greenland (Herbarium -material). 



As regards the dispersal of the fruit I may mention Norman's 

 well-known hypothesis regarding its dispersal by reindeer. As 

 far as 1 know it has not yet been investigated whether the 

 dung of the reindeer contains fruits of R. gldcialis capable of 

 germinating; but Norman rests his hypothesis on the fact that 

 the reindeer eat by preference the tops of this plant, even 

 when it has ripe fruit (as has been mentioned the perianth 

 persists) and also on the fact that the plant occurs especially 

 in the localities in Arctic Norway in which the reindeer wander, 

 and with a few exceptions, occurs only in those regions on the 

 earth where that animal now lives or has lived in former times. 



Germination. In the literature upon the subject there 

 are several notes on the germinating plants of R. glacialis\ 

 by Lamarck in "Flore Française," and by L. u. A. Bravais in 

 "Die geomet. Anordnung der Blätter und Blütenstände," Breslau, 

 1839, note on p. 129; and information concerning the germination 

 may be found in several papers by Winkler in Verb. d. hot. 

 Vereins d. Prov. Brandenburg, vols. XVHI -XXVI— XXXVI. Sylvén 

 (1. с.) has figured and described the germinating plant from 

 material from Lapland. Germination takes place during the 

 spring, and there is only one cotyledon ; the first leaf on the 

 epicotyl is a scale-leaf, then comes a foliage-leaf with an entire, 

 triangular lamina. The second year only a few foliage-leaves 

 are developed. The third-year's leaves are distinctly tripartite; 

 the primary root is by that time dead. 



