Some Notes concerning the Vegetation of Germania Land 399 



-|- 10° was measured on the above-mentioned day, at 10.50 a. m., at 

 a depth of 4 cm. ; beside it in slowly running water, the thermometer 

 showed -L 9.3°^ in dry sand ^^10.5°; and in the air ^^0.5°. 



The conditions at this spot are favourable : sloping ground with 

 a southern aspect and plenty of moisture, which features serve to 

 minimize the difference between the day and night temperatures. 

 The illustration was taken on June 15, 1908. At that time was 

 found Saxifraga oppositifolia which predominates in the assemblage 

 and as a great part of it was already flowering it gave a colour- 

 tone among the black surroundings, where also the yellowish-grey 

 tufts of Carex misandra were seen. Soon came the species next in 

 conspicuousness, Pedicularis hirsuta, which was already peeping out 

 with its fresh shoots in the drier spots. Salix also was flowering. 

 Saxifraga nivalis and Papaver occurred with fresh rosettes, and Ra- 

 nunculus glacialis was almost out. Moreover fresh shoots were seen 

 on Silène, Alsine verna, Cerastium alpinum and Polentilla emarginala. 

 In one place Melandrium affine stood alone, still with its stems of 

 the previous year. Stellaria longipes was lying with apparent in- 

 difference still in its winter-clothes; but a closer inspection showed 

 that in it also there was life in the nooks and corners of the tufts. 

 Draba hirta had fresh rosettes; also Luzula confusa, a Poa and a 

 few tufts of Festuca ovina showed the first signs of reawakening life. 

 Add to this green algæ in the small pools, and the iVosfoc-lumps 

 in the running water, these all taken together formed a picture of 

 a small, isolated, favourably-situated spot in spring-attire. 



When I returned home from Lille Snenæs on July 2 "The Is- 

 land" was covered with flowering poppies. There was still some- 

 thing left of the snowdrift along the 6-metre curve, where the 

 cross-hatched part indicates a pronounced Casszope-locality. In that 

 part of "The Island" which was the first to become free from snow 

 Saxifraga oppositifolia had already almost finished flowering. But 

 S. flagellaris was in flower and some unusually luxuriant Cerastium- 

 tufts, the flowers of which measured 20 mm. (cf. List, p. 20, the note to 

 Cerastium; the illustration (Fig. 12) shows a tuft with stems stretched 

 out and lying prostrate upon the ground). Towards the Cassiope-s\ope, 

 at about the 5-metre curve, Cerastium alpinum f. pulvinata Simm. 

 occurred here and there. It lay for a long time hidden under the 

 snowdrift and in 1907 did not appear until the month of August; 

 the next year it was at that stage of development even before our 

 departure on July 21. At the same level, between the Cassiope-helt 

 and the small masses of primitive rocks nearer to the water, Alsine 

 biflora was found (cf. List, p. 18). Later in the summer the ground 

 becomes dry and the surface cracks into polygonal cakes (a kind 



