Stray Contributions to the Flora of Greenland I—V. 41 
Students of the flower-biology of O. quadripetalus (SPRENGEL, 
KERNER, LINDMAN, WARMING, KIRCHNER)!) do not think that self- 
pollination ever takes place in this species. The flower. is slightly protan- 
drous and the style is elongated, so that the mature stigma is well re- 
moved from the anther-tubes. The dry pollen-tetrads will easily drop 
out, but owing to the position of the expanded flower they do not touch 
the stigma until a humble-bee attaches itself to the flower, and by its 
weight bends it vertically downwards. Other insects are said to be 
unable to eflect pollination. 
The flower-biology of the Oxycoccus from Greenland and Arctic 
Norway has been investigated by WARMING (Biol. of. Arct. Pl. vol. I, 
p. 54. Medd. om Gril. 36, 1912). He had evidently also material of O. mi- 
crocarpus, but he did not recognize the difference between this species 
and the Greenland plant?) WARMING found that in the flowers of the 
northern cranberries the anthers were already open and shedding pollen in 
the bud, as has been observed in many other Arctic Ericaceae. Further, 
the style in the mature state barely overtops the anther-tubes 
and he thinks that, in the northern plants, self-pollination regularly 
takes place. This statement of the length of style fits best with O. mi- 
crocarpus. The flowers of the Greenland plant, as seen by the pre- 
sent writer, are fully expanded, with the corolla fully reflexed before 
the style even protrudes between the anther-tubes, and overtopping 
stigmas are only seen when the flowers begin to wither. 
Thus the northern forms of the cranberries may, genetically, be- 
come pure lines. 
The Greenland plant. Having before me numerous specimens 
of 16 different collections and notes from others, kept in the Copenhagen 
herbarium, I cannot subscribe to the statement by ROSENVINGE, quoted 
above, that also typical O. quadripetalus occurs in Greenland. To me, 
they represent a very uniform type which, in brief, can be characterized 
as different from ©. quadripetalus in all its dimensional characters, as 
well as in the colour and biology of its flowers. With O. microcarpus, 
it has the dimensions in common, but it differs in the fruits and 
the flower-stalks being even more pubescent than in the type. If 
typical O. quadripetalus did really exist in Greenland, a designation of 
the dwarfish state as a “forma’’ would be fitting. As it is now, it seems 
1) See: Kincuner, Loew u. Scuroeren: Lebensgeschichte der Blütenpflanzen 
Mitteleuropas. Lief. 23—24. Stuttgart 1923, p. 124. 
2) On p. 56 is an obvious “lapsus calami” when W. ascribes “downy” instead 
of glabrous pedicels to O. microcarpus. 
