228 



DISCOVERY 



apparent if an attempt is made to dig up intact a 

 fairly larg;e prostrate Willow. The rocky ground is 

 generally covered with a thin layer of soil and roots 

 are unable to grow far in a vertical direction. In 

 some places permanently frozen ground is met with 

 at about two feet below the surface, while in other 

 situations there mav be at least two yards of unfrozen 

 earth or sand in the summer. The root of one 

 Willow we dug up was traced" for at least twelve 

 yards, growing horizontally not many inches under- 

 ground. Size is a misleading criterion of age ; the 

 wood of a \\'illow stem barely an inch in diameter 

 may show as many as loo attenuated annual rings. 

 In the districts we visited Willows, including the 

 British species, Salix herbacea (the smallest tree in 

 the British Isles) and a few other species, with many 

 hybrids, and the dwarf Birch are the only trees. The 

 tallest examples growing in sheltered places or 

 against the sides of rocks reach a height of two 

 to three feet; for the most part they lie prone on 



Fig. I.— I'AKT (JI A DELTA WITH CuTTON l.KAS^ AND OTHER 

 PLANTS. 



[R. E. HOLTTUM, photo. 



the ground with no main stem l)ut spreading and 

 often twisted shoots in whicli the annual increase in 

 length is very small. In .Smith Greenland, on the 

 other hand, trees are more abundant and much 

 higher ; in rare instances they reach a height of 

 about eighteen feet. In addition to A\'illows and 

 Birches there are Junipers, Alders, and the .American 

 Sorb (Sorbus americana). 



Landing on a beach v^here glacial streams have 

 built up a fan-shaped delta sloping seawards in a 

 graceful curve from the mouth of a ravine cut bv 

 successive spring floods through the rocks of the 

 raised plateau, one finds stretches of muddy flats and 

 boggy ground covered with the waving white plumes 

 of the Cotton grass and many other familiar plants 

 (Fig. i); on the drier ground are bright reddish- 

 purple patches of a handsome \\'illo\\ herb closelv 

 allied to our common British species, and clumps of 

 bright Poppies and darker and more brilliant Dande- 

 lions. In both wet and drv situations the bright 



green feathery stems of the common Horsetail flourish 

 in quantity. The hill sides are often clothed with a 

 thick carpet of heath-forming vegetation mixed with 

 stunted Willows ; the lea\ es of some of the \Mllows 

 are covered w ith a silvery down forming an attractive 

 background to the dark red catkins. Trailing 

 branches of the Uwarf Birch, parti-coloured tangles 

 of Lichens, Mosses in different shades of green, and 

 creeping or erect Club Mosses are characteristic 

 features. Among the common heath plants are the 

 Bilberry, which in the latter part of the summer 

 provides an abundance of fruits dusted with a blue- 

 grev bloom, the Crowberry, a Rhododendron 

 resembling the Alpine Rose, a species of Ledum — 

 sometimes called Labrador tea — a plant of .American 

 origin with dense and fragrant clusters of star-like 

 flowers, Phyllodoce, characteristic of high northern 

 latitudes, and found also in the Pyrenees but not on 

 the .Swiss .Alps, with its purple bells recalling those 

 of our Heaths, and an abundance of the beautiful 

 white flowers of Uiapensia, a genus with a wide 

 distribution from .Spitsbergen through Grinnel Land 

 to Eastern Canada and the United States and Japan, 

 two species of a widely spread .American and Siberian 

 genus Cassiope, the commonest of which, Casslope 

 tctrugonia, has small crowded leaves like green over- 

 lapping scales grasping the slender stems in four 

 regular geometrical rows with here and there a white 

 bell pendulous on a delicate stalk. One of the most 

 abundant and attractive plants is Pyrola grandiflora, 

 a species unknown in Britain but represented in our 

 flora by its near relative the ^^'inter Green ; from -.1 

 rosette of glossy dark brown leaves the flowering 

 shoot stands erect bearing a series of wide-open 

 flowers with pinkish white petals. The yellow 

 and pale pink flowers of Pedicularis (the genus 

 which includes the Lousewort), crowded on stout 

 stems with rich brown leaves, add to the variety of 

 colour. .A species of Drvas, Dryas integrifolia, very 

 similar to the British .Alpine species Dryas 

 octo[>ctaIa, is exceedingly common. The pure white 

 flowers and slender grey-green stems of the .Alpine 

 Cerastium (the .Alpine Mouse-eared Chickweed), the 

 viviparous Polygonum, its tall spikes with terminal 

 flowers overtopping most of its neighbours, groups 

 of blue Harebells, and on the sandy beaches the 

 darker sky-blue flowers of Mertensia, several 

 different kinds of Saxifrage, species with shining 

 white flowers on long stalks and the more compact 

 cushions of Saxifraga op l>ositi folia with a rich display 

 of purple-blue flowers; species of Ranunculus and 

 Potentilla and an attractive little Draba allied to the 

 white Vernal Whitlow grass with yellow and white 

 flowers; clumps of yellow Dandelions and .Arnicas; 

 these with manv other less showy plants, in which 

 brown is the dominant shade, all have a slnare in the 

 general scheme of colour. 



