14 ARKIV FÖR BOTANIK. BAND 12. NIO 7. 



8. Draba alpina L. 



D. alpina has always been a distinct species in Scandi- 

 navia, differing as it is from all otlier species by its pure 

 yellow colour, Linn.5:us had himself discovered this species 

 during his tour in Lappony 1732. In the Flora Lapponica 

 (1737) p. 211 he calls it Draba scapo nudo simplici, foliis lan- 

 ceolatis integerrimis. That D. alpina which is mentioned in 

 that passage as cultivated in the Botanical garden of Leyden 

 is not, however, our Northern plant but, according to J. E. 

 Smith (Richter: Caroli Linnaei Systema p. 625), Draba ciliar is 

 L. As D. ciliaris is described by Linn.i:us (Mantissa ed. 1 

 1767 p. 91) as having white flowers, it seems to me as if it 

 must rather be Draba azoides L. 



Our form of D. alpina is not found in the Alps, but 

 only a form affined to it: Draba Sauteri Hoppe (1. c. p. 425) 

 Koch: Synopsis Florse Germanicae ed. 3 (1857) p. 54; Rei- 

 chenbach: Icones Florae Germanicae n:o 4252. 



Celsius had given the name of D. alpina hirsuta to D. 

 incana L. (Flora Lapponica p. 211) and Linn^us himself calls 

 this plant D. alpina in his »Västgöta Resa» 1747 p. 74. 



D. alpina L. hybridiges in the North, both with D. 

 fladnizensis and D. magellanica. 



In Arctic stations still more intermediate forms are 

 found, which renders the hmitation of the species there more 

 difficult. 



The covering of the leaves of D. alpina consists gene- 

 rally of long cilia (of the lenght of about 1 mm.) and on 

 the surface of stellulate hairs. Thus it is represented in 

 Svensk Botanik tom. 11 f. 771, and in L. Reichenbach's 

 Plantae Criticae tab. 772 n:o 1036—38. In the hybrid between 

 D. fladnizensis and D. alpina the pubescence also on the 

 surface of the leaf generally consists mainly of simple hairs 

 and the flowers are of a pale yellow colour. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, simple hairs are also found on the surface of the 

 leaves of specimens with typical bright yellow flowers. With 

 such a covering of simple hairs on the surface the plant is 

 represented by Wahlenberg in Flora Lapponica tab, XI. 

 fig. 4. 



For the present I do not venture decide whether this 

 latter form is a hybridous one or not. 



