Jan. 1899.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 149 



A. hypnoidcs : " The delicate tint of the ilowers was here 

 finely contrasted with the uniform blackness of the lava. 

 Its barren shoots, as is observed by Linnteus, exactly 

 resembles those of a moss, or of a small Lycopodium." 



On 12th July 1809, when on his way to the Geysers, at 

 p. 99 the same author says : "At the mouth of one (a cave) 

 I found a miserable specimen of A. hypnoides, and a few 

 plants of Pyrola minor." 



Sir George Stewart-Mackenzie, Bart., in his " Travels in 

 Iceland," published 1812, App. p. 414, gives A. hypnoidcs, 

 on the authority of Hooker. 



Professor C. C. Babingtou, in his paper on the " Flora of 

 Iceland," " Journal of Linnsean Society," Botany xi. p. 316, 

 mentions A. hypnoides as abundant in the eastern part 

 of the island, and mountains above Akreyri. Grows on 

 lava on road to the Geysers. 



Dr. Lauder Lindsay, in his paper on the " Flora of 

 Iceland," " Transactions of the Botanical Society, 

 Edinburgh," vol. vii. p. 141 (this paper was read 11th 

 April 1861), only mentions A. hypnoidcs, Linn. 



One cannot read these notes without feeling that the 

 conditions of soil suitable for A. hypnoides were quite 

 different from those requisite for A. polifolia, — the former 

 growing upon the volcanic rock, the latter in the deep, 

 wet soil of peat bogs. In Liddesdale I found it most 

 abundant in the wettest situations, its lateral roots, with 

 many diverging rootlets, a few inches beneath the surface 

 of the bog, and sometimes appearing upon its surface, with 

 the barren stems generally more or less prostrate, and the 

 flowering stems raised from three to six inches from the 

 ground. 



Altogether, it appears to me that A. polifolia is well 

 worth our consideration. What, we may ask, are the 

 conditions prevailing in our Highlands, and also in Iceland, 

 preventing its growth ? It cannot be any want of 

 suitability in the climate, as we find the plant growing in 

 the comparatively warm low country of Northern Germany, 

 and at, or near, sea-level in Great Britain and Ireland, 

 and yet we find it as an Alpine plant in the high 

 mountains of Central Europe and Northern Spain, in the 

 high mountains of Northern Scandinavia, in Greenland, 



