152 POLAR PROBLEMS 



bearing stems were very leafy, and several of the basal leaves above 

 the rosette subtended runners of the usual structure. The rosette 

 was not as compact as in typical specimens, and, moreover, a sub- 

 terranean stem portion about 5 centimeters long extended from the 

 rosette to a cluster of secondary roots. This stem portion bore some 

 remnants of withered leaves and consisted thus of more than one 

 internode. Some isolated young rosettes, which grew near the flower- 

 ing specimens, showed a similar elongated stem beneath the rosette 

 leaves, provided with a corresponding system of secondary roots 

 at the lower end of the stem. A third type of specimens, however, 

 elucidated this singular structure. It consisted of a rosette of leaves 

 with runners, but, instead of being terminated by an inflorescence, 

 the main shoot had continued to grow above the rosette as a vegetative 

 shoot bearing several scattered leaves and terminated by a rosette of 

 a more open structure than in the typical plant. In other words, the 

 alpine Saxifraga fiagellaris may remain in a purely vegetative stage 

 for several years, but not as a single rosette gradually increasing in 

 size, as in the case of the arctic specimens, but developing an erect, 

 purely vegetative shoot of which the apex assumes the shape of a 

 rosette to produce flowers in the succeeding year and still depending 

 on the same fascicle of secondary roots. The age of such specimens 

 appeared to be not less than four years. The fact that none of the 

 specimens examined by Holm possessed a primary root actually indi- 

 cates that they owed their existence to rosettes of runners, which 

 undoubtedly is the most common method of reproduction in this 

 species. However, capsules with ripe seeds are to be found frequently 

 in alpine specimens, and even in Novaya Zemlya capsules with seeds 

 are found. 



Transplantation Experiments to Discover Effect of 

 Environmental Conditions 



The investigation of this plastic species and other suitable alpine- 

 arctic species along the lines followed by the French botanist Gaston 

 Bonnier^" would yield scientific results of great interest and impor- 

 tance. Bonnier divided perennial lowland plants into several parts 

 and planted these parts in the Pyrenees and the Alpine regions of 

 Switzerland. Similarly he transplanted Pyrenees species to the low- 

 lands and the Alps, and alpine species to the Pyrenees and the lowlands 

 of Paris. He discovered that the changed environment produced 

 certain histological and morphological characteristics of qualitative 

 and quantitative kinds. Similar transplantation experiments should 



2" Gaston Bonnier: (i) Cultures experimentales dans les Alpes et les Pyrenees, Rev. Ghi. de 

 Botan., Vol. 2, 1890, p. 513; (2) Recherches sur I'anatomie experimentale des vegetaux, Ann. des Sci. 

 Nat., Ser. 7: Botan.; Vol. 20, 1895, pp. 218-360; (3) Les plantes arctiques coraparees aux memes 

 especes des Alpes et des Pyrenees, Rev. Gen. de Botan., Vol. 6, 1894, p. 505. 



