40 C. H. OSTENFELD. M.-N. KI. 
»Calycibus duplo fere brevioribus . . . Pedunculi haud ita elongati, medius 
s. alaris ramos florigeros laterales superat aut æquat in statu juniore, deinde 
elongatur rami laterales, pedunculo alari deflexo, nunc uniflori bibracteati 
nunc multiflori, pedunculis omnibus semper brevibus fructiferis refractis; 
nec fere solus elongatus adstat uno superveniente ramo laterali bibracteato 
unifloro, pedunculo elongato.« The characters given here are 1) the shorter 
sepals and 2) the subumbellate inflorescence which is very like the inflo- 
rescence of C. cæspitosum. I have examined a number of C. alpinum from 
Iceland, Scandinavia, Spitsbergen, Novaya-Zemlia and Arctic America and 
have found the length of the sepals ranging from 6 to 9 mm., mostly 
7—8 mm., and the ripe capsules 11—14 mm.; only in a very peculiar 
form from Arctic Siberia (Cape Cheljuchin, leg. KsELLMAN) the figures 
were resp. 5 mm. and 8 mm.; but this form differed considerably from 
the true C. alpinum. Measurements of C. Fischerianum from »Hort. Pawl., 
1831« in the Copenhagen herbarium gave c. 5 mm. as length of the 
sepals, and the same result was obtained on a specimen labelled »ex 
Amer. exped. Franklin ded. Hook.« also in the Copenhagen herbarium. 
In both specimens the short sepals form a more campanulate calyx than 
the cylindrical-campanulate calyx of C. alpinum. The specimens from King 
Point agree in all essentials with the two here mentioned specimens and 
also with the exhaustive remarks by A. DE CHAmisso. I have therefore no 
doubt as to the identity of our specimens with C. Fischerianum Ser. The 
sepals are 4.5—6 mm. long and the ripe capsules (a year old) g—11 mm. 
CHAMISSO states that the species (or geographical race) is common in 
all the countries round the Bering Sea, and he thinks that some of the 
records of C. alpinum from Arctic North America should rather be referred 
to C. Fischerianum. It may be so, but all the specimens from Arctic 
America which I have seen (4 localities collected by Parry, further 2 
localities in Hudson Bay and Strait) as also specimens from Gaspé County 
in Canada are true C. alpinum and do not belong to this form, which is 
certainely restricted to the more western parts of Arctic America; the 
specimens from King Williams Land collected by the Gjéa Expedition are 
also, as mentioned above (p. 10), C. alpinum. The true C. alpinum occurs 
also in Alaska, as the specimens collected by KJELLMAN at Port Clarence 
belong to it (now kept in the Riksmuseum, Stockholm). 
33. Cerastium maximum L., Sp. pl, 1753, p. 439. 
Putten’s list, Arctic Coast, between Point Barrow and Mackenzie River. 
King Point. Numerous flowering specimens have been collected 
on July 7th and roth, 1906. 
