312 DR. HOOKER ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 
Bay side (where it occurs in very high latitudes only) till Kane's Expedition, when it was 
brought from North Proven, lat. 72° N. 
B. Flammula, L., and reptans, L., are both arctic plants, the latter the more so. Pries 
keeps these distinct, as do Torrey and Gray and others, and Koch, in his Addenda et 
Emendanda, because of the short-beaked achenium of reptans : in the body of his • Elora ' 
he made it var. /3 of Flammula, as do Bentham and various other authors. I find the beak 
of the fruit of Flammula to be very variable and often quite undistinguishable from that 
of reptans. There is a United States plant very like Flammula, but with a much more 
slender beak than the European plant, which is called B. Flammula by American 
authors. 
B. affinis, Br. Ledebour unites this with his B. amcenus. I have no hesitation in 
referring both to auricomus, L. 
B.frigidus, DC, and B. Eschscholtzii, SchL, seem to me inseparable from nivalis. B. 
sulfureus, Sol., is more distinct, and kept separate by Eries, but is referred to nivalis by 
Ledebour : it is one of the most arctic plants known, and certainly passes into nivalis. 
B. polyanthemos, L. It is so difficult to distinguish herbarium specimens of this from 
R. acris, L., that I am not sure I have got its full distribution, for which I have relied 
on authentic book sources. B. nemorosus is usually combined with it. 
B. glabrlusculus, Rupr. El. Sam., is an imperfectly described plant, referred doubtfully 
to B. acris. No allusion is made in the author's description to the peduncle, which is 
figured like that of acris ; but the receptacle is described as glabrous. It was, further, 
found with acris at the Gulf of Indega, east of the mouth of the White Sea. The acris (3. 
hum His, Wahl., is also, according to Ruprecht, common on the Samoied shores of the same 
sea, and in the arctic Island of Kolgujew. 
B. pygmasw, Wahl. A high-arctic species, best known from hyperboreus, with which 
it is united in ■ Elora Indica,' by wanting the creeping flagelliform stems. The Tyrol is 
the only European habitat south of Scandinavia. The B. Sabmii, which I have placed 
with it, is so named authentically, but does not differ from pygmmus ; it is, however, one 
of those extremely reduced forms whose origin can only be ascertained by examining an 
extensive suite of specimens. Of the B. Samojedarum, Rupr., I have seen no specimen ; 
it is an imperfectly described plant, found in the Island of Kolgujew at the mouth of the 
\\ hite Sea, and described as being very nearly related to B. Burshii. 
B. hyperboreus, Rottb. Of this, which is a Greenland, European, and Siberian plant, 
I have seen no Arctic American specimen ; all so called hitherto are, I think, referable to 
pygmceus. The B. Gmelini, referred to hyperboreus in Elor. Bor.-Am., is reduced to FursU 
by Ledebour. 
Caltha palustris, L. The prevalent opinion amongst botanists is to unite as varieties 
ail the names I have placed under this. The true palustris itself inhabits the extreme 
north (Island of Kolgujew, Rupr.). C. natans, L., is a floating plant affecting high lati- 
tudes only, a radicans and C. arctica are probably synonyms, the yellow colour of the 
persistent sepals being discharged after flowering. Watson regards C. radicans as cer- 
tainly a reduced form ; Nyman makes it distinct, giving Scotland as its habitat, but says 
oi C. palustris, « species ut videtur eollectiva" ; Eries makes it a variety found in Lap- 
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