4 ARKIV FÖR BOTANIK. BAND 12. NIO 7. 



died 1821), and was marked by him as received from Com- 

 MERSON. Now we must bear in mind that Lamarck also found- 

 ed his diagnosis (in Ency eloped ie Méthodique, Botanique t. 

 2, p. 328, 1786) upon a specimen from the herbarium of 

 CoMMERSON. This plant at Kew is thus as good as a type 

 specimen. It consists, as Hooker also remarks, of a single 

 stem »probably one of several». Perhaps one of the others 

 was just the one described by Lamarck? 



This Draha magellanica at Kew is a typical Draha 

 arctica with very dense covering. Identical with it are 

 also other specimens of the same species at Kew, the Natural 

 History Museum in London and in the collections of Upsala 

 University that I have seen. (Those in the Stockholm Mu- 

 seum do not all appear to me to be so typical.) Not all of 

 them have such a dense covering. However, I have not seen 

 the most glabrous form, {D. hirta f. leiocarpa Lindbl. 1. c. 

 p. 330) represented from the South hemisphere. If I had to 

 pich upon a distinguishing characteristic for the Antarctic 

 form ; it would be the entire or very slightly serrated leaves 

 even in specimens of a certain heigth e. g. 25 cm. 



It is true that specimens from Greenland often have 

 very slighty serrated or entire leaves, but then the plant is not 

 as a rule so high. Plants with more serrated leaves are 

 mostly found at a somewhat lower latitude of the Nothern 

 hemisphere, e. g. North Scandinavia and Dovre. The 

 Antarctic specimens are as often branched as those from 

 Scandinavia, Sibiria or North America, where the plant often 

 is called Draha arahisans Mich., Draha glabella Push., Draha 

 Hennearia Schlecht., Draha 7jellesfoma7ia Ave Nelson. I have 

 only seen high, branched Greenlandic specimens from Disco, 

 collected by Professor Th. M. Fries. 



I have not broached the question whether the high D. 

 magellanica, with stellulate pubescence and several leaves 

 on the stem might be the Draha hirta of Linn^us, as it 

 seems to be impossible from his very diagnosis in Systema 

 Naturce ed. X (1759) p. 1127 and his description in Species 

 plantarum ed. II t. 2 (1763) p. 897. A specimen of D. magel- 

 lanica Lam. was however collected by Linn^us himself during 

 his tour in Lappony in 1732, and, together with other plants, 

 given to Burman. This herbarium of Burman, which is now 

 in Paris, has been described by Professor Th. M. Fries (in 



