THE FLOWERS OF KOLGUEV 399 



side of the gullies among thick grass. I first saw it on our second 

 landing on June 17 (on a bank on which the snow was still lying 

 in patches), in company with Oxytropus and Myosotis. When in full 

 bloom the heads form a most brilliant cluster, on account of the low 

 growth of the plant. 



R. Pallasii Schlecht. Var. (3. minor. Rupr. 



I have referred earlier to my first meeting with this plant on 

 Kolguev. It presented characters so distinct from any Ranunculus I 

 had before seen that I took the greatest possible interest in it. I 

 brought down a quantity of it from the Pesanka and from the Swan 

 Lake, and kept it alive by our Scharok waterhole till we came away. 

 Eventually I sent the plants to the Botanical Gardens in Oxford. 



The petals (6 or 8), are white — not semi-transparent white as those 

 of R. aquatilis, but white as Parnassia palustris. The sepals are 3 or 

 rarely 4. 



The flower is very sweetly scented — a point which seems to have 

 been quite omitted in previous descriptions. The plants I brought 

 from Kolguev exactly agree with the description of Ruprecht's /?. minor. 

 It is smaller than the type, and the cauline leaves are all unlobed. 

 This plant grew only in the wettest moss bogs, in which its stems rami- 

 fied, rooting at the joints. 



Mr. Baker, to whom I am indebted for identification of this plant, 

 has kindly supplied me with the following notes : — 



The type, as figured by Schlechtendal in his ' Animadversiones,' is 

 large and fistular, and with generally lobed leaves. I have examined 

 the specimens both at the Natural History Museum and at Kew, and 

 find that this is apparently confined to the mainland. 



The following seem to be fairly typical — 



(a) Siberia Jenisei Nikandrovsky ostrov 70 20' N. lat. J. Sahlberg. 



(i) Lapp. Ross. Ponoi. J. Sahlberg and A. J. Malmberg, and also 

 collected at the same locality by R. Enwald and C. A. Knabe. 



(c) Eskimoland. Seemann. 



Ruprecht in his Symbolce plantarum Rossicarum, p. 18, records this 

 from ' Ad promeno. Barmin.' 



