414 



you have a bastard of Saxifraga oppositifolia and .S. aizoides 

 before you. 



Tliis variety has been described by P. Dcskn') upon the 

 specimens found in 1899 by A. G. Nathorst and K. A. Gredin 

 at 7 divers localities in tiie Frantz Joseph Fjord and Fvong 

 Oscar Fjord, and Ddsén gives both good iiabit pictures of 

 the form and analyses of leaves, corollas and sepals of the 

 main species and of the variety. Ddsén points out that the 

 late flowering is striking in the variety, while the main species, 

 as known, belongs to the earliest flowering spring plants of 

 Greenland and altogether of the whole arctic Zone. 



We found numerous specimens growing amongst Saxi- 

 fraga oppositifolia and S. aizoides on a low sanded moist 

 bottom near the beach, but did not see any ripe fruits on the 

 plant. Specimens, brought alive to Copenhagen have later 

 flowered every year in the Botanical Gardens of the university 

 and have kept constant, although somewhat luxuriating. 



The valley was covered by considerable alluvial layers, mostly 

 sand, and cross-furrowed by abandoned, dry river-beds. Most 

 likely the valley-bottom is a "postglacial" river-deposit in the 

 former inlet, the mouth of which has been partly closed by a 

 reef formed by a basalt-stock; remnants of this still showed 

 projecting rocks at and close outside the beach. The river 

 carries enormous quantities of sand along with it, and excepting 

 only the foot of the mountain the valley-bottom was made up 

 everywhere of fine sand without stones. Nearest the moun- 

 tain-foot were stones and stony clay, moraine or weathering 

 product. The river had such an abundance of water and 

 the current was so strong that it could not be waded. 



Farther up the valley was an excellent opportunity of 

 studying the marked influence of the height of the underground 

 water, which asserted itself at rather inconsiderable diff"erences 



') Zur Kentnis d. Gefässpfl. Ostgrönland. Bik. t. k. sv. Vet. Akad. Handl., 

 Bd. 27. Aid. 111. Nr. 3, 1901. 



