Stray Contributions to the Flora of Greenland IV. 27 
are surely not typical G. trifidum, but the material is too scanty for a definite iden- 
tification. 
All Scandinavian material I have seen is G. trifidum, 
and later from America he adds: 
Having now seen a large material of G. Brandegeei in the Gray- and Ottawa- 
herbaria, I am somewhat in doubt about the taxonomic unity of that species or 
about its range in variation. 
As Linnaeus’ G. trifidum came from Canada, a careful comparison between 
the European and American material of this species as well as with the related 
species probably should be suggested.*) 
A. E. PorsiLp (in litt.). 
The type of G. Brandegeei came from New Mexico, Valley Rio 
Grande on Los Pinos Trail, (Ab. 37° N.), 9000 feet altitude. It was 
described by Asa Gray in Proc. Am. Ac. 1877, p. 58. 
Caespitose-depressum, parvum, glabrum, laevissimum. Radicibus fibrosis, 
foliis quaternis obovatis vel spathulatis fere aveniis lin. 1—3 longis. Pedunculis 
“unifloribus solitariis binisve nudis. Flore albido semi-lineam longo. Fructu laevi 
glabro. — 
Twenty years later, K. Wırcann published an extensive revision 
of the Nth. American Galium-species, allied to G. trifidum, in Bull. 
Torr. Bot. Cl. 24, p. 389—403, 18972) 
His description runs: 
Perennial and caespitose, forming dense mats, stems low and prostrate or 
ascending (5—12 cm. long), slender and rather densely leafy, smooth or nearly so; 
branches when present solitary; leaves in fours, unequal, obovate-spathulate, small 
(10 mm.) or less; rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, somewhat fleshy, dull 
on both surfaces, veins indistinct, margins and midribs glabrous; flowers lateral, 
commonly geminate, on glabrous arcuate pedicels which are as long or longer than 
the leaves, corolla of med. size, white, 3-parted, lobes broadly ovate, obtuse, fruit 
glab. Endosperm spherical hollow, annular in cross-section. 
The specimens from our collections agree very well with the des- 
criptions given and with specimens from Québec and Newfoundland, 
only our plants are somewhat more branched. In American literature 
the plant is said to grow in springy places, whereas we took ours in 
Sphagnum, but in one specimen from the Tabletop Mts. in Québec, 
1100 m. alt., (Gray Herbarium N. 26020), the roots were entangled in a 
clump of Sphagnum. 
1) Already Ruprecur noticed that American and Russian specimens were 
slightly different. Fl. Samojed. Cisural., Beitr. Pfl. Russ. Reich. Lief. 2., St. Petersb. 
1845, p. 38. 
2) I have had no access to these papers, only the quotations having been copied 
for me. 
