166 Dr. W. Seller on some Plants obtained 
days, Mr. Goodsir hoped to obtain a complete collection of the 
animals, plants and minerals existing upon them. 
The expedition has now proceeded into the inhospitable icy 
regions of the north, and we must not expect to receive any 
further accounts of it until it has either succeeded in making its 
way into the Pacific Ocean, or having found that to be impossible, 
ison its return to England. In either case there can be no doubt 
that much valuable scientific information will be obtained. 
XVII.— Observations on some Plants obtained from the shores of 
Davis’ Straits. By Wiii1aM Setier, M.D., Fellow of the 
Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh*. 
A rew weeks since, Mr. Sutherland, a student of medicine, who 
made a voyage last summer to Davis’ Straits as medical officer of 
a whale ship, presented me with some plants gathered on the 
coasts and dried as he best could without any of the usual bota- 
nical conveniences. There are in all about twenty-five species, 
and a few of them are plants which cannot fail to imterest the 
botanist. All of them were gathered withm or close upon the 
Arctic Circle, on the coasts of Davis’ Straits and Baffin’s Bay, 
adjacent to the usual course of whale-fishing vessels, so that, were 
it deemed desirable, it would be easy, by holding out a little en- 
couragement, to induce some of the many young men who go 
out annually in the same capacity with Mr. Sutherland to bring 
home collections of this description. 
It is impossible to believe that the variations of species under 
the opposite circumstances of different regions, as respects soil, 
situation and climate, do not take place in obedience to fixed ge- 
neral laws. Yet our knowledge on this head at present consists 
almost exclusively of what may be called unreduced particular 
observations on certaim species ; too few to found upon. It ma 
be that such laws prevail, yet he beyond our reach. If such be 
the case, the only resource is to make up our minds to sacrifice 
brevity in regard to species observed to vary, and to practise de- 
tailed description of all their varieties. And fortunately, while 
this method serves as a considerable corrective of the evil in the 
meantime, it is the only plan, by following out which we can 
hope to arrive at the general laws of variation, if these be attain- 
able. 
When a species is known to be polymorphous, we might, in 
the meantime, advisably lay aside the ordmary circumscribed 
* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 12th of June and 
10th of July, 1845. 
