312 DR. HOOKER ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 



Bay side (where it occurs in very high latitudes only) till Kane's Expedition, when it was 

 brought from North Proven, lat. 72" N. 



B. Flmnnmla, L., and reptans, L., are both arctic plants, the latter the more so. Tries 

 keeps these distinct, as do Torrey and Gray and others, and Koch, in his Addenda et 

 Emendanda, because of the short-beaked achenium of reptans : in the body of his ' Elora ' 

 he made it var. jS of Flammula, as do Bentham and various other authors. I find the beak 

 of the fruit of Flammula to be very variable and often quite undistinguishable from that 

 of reptans. There is a United States plant very like Flammtda, but with a much more 

 slender beak than the European plant, which is called B. Flammula by American 

 authors. 



Pl. affinis, Br. Ledebour unites this with his B. amcemis. I have no hesitation in 

 referring both to auricomus, L. 



B.frigidus, DC, and B. EschsclioUzii, Schl., seem to me inseparable from nivalis. B. 

 sidfureus, Sol., is more distinct, and kept separate by Eries, but is referred to nivalis /3 by 

 Ledebour : it is one of the most arctic plants known, and certainly passes into nivalis. 



B. j)olyanthenios, L. It is so difficult to distinguish herbarium specimens of this from 

 B. acris, L., that I am not sure I have got its full distribution, for which I have relied 

 on authentic book sources. B. nemorosus is usually combined with it. 



B. glabriusculus, Rupr. El. Sam., is an imperfectly described plant, referred doubtfully 

 to B. acris. No allusion is made in the author's description to the peduncle, which is 

 figured like that of acris ; but the receptacle is described as glabrous. It was, further, 

 found with acris at the Gulf of Indega, east of the mouth of the White Sea. The acris j3. 

 humilis, "Wahl., is also, according to Ruprecht, common on the Samoied shores of the same 

 sea, and in the arctic Island of Kolgujew. 



B. pygmceus, Wahl. A high-arctic species, best known from hyperboreus, with which 

 it is united in ' Elora Indica,' by wanting the creeping flagelliform stems. The Tyrol is 

 the only European habitat south of Scandinavia. The B. Sabinii, which I have placed 

 with it, is so named authentically, but does not differ from pygmmts ; it is, however, one 

 of those extremely reduced forms whose origin can only be ascertained by examining an 

 extensive suite of specimens. Of the B. Samojedarum, Rupr., I have seen no specimen ; 

 it is an imperfectly described plant, found in the Island of Kolgujew at the mouth of the 

 White Sea, and described as being very nearly related to B. Furshii. 



B. hypjerboreus, Rottb. Of this, which is a Greenland, European, and Siberian plant, 

 I have seen no Arctic American specimen ; all so called hitherto are, I think, referable to 

 pygmceus. The B. Gmelini, referred to hyperboreus in Elor. Bor.-Am., is reduced to Purshii 

 by Ledebour. 



Caltha palnstris, L. The prevalent opinion amongst Ijotanists is to unite as varieties 

 all the names I have placed under this. The true palustris itself inhabits the extreme 

 north (Island of Kolgujew, Rupr.). C. natans, L., is a floating plant affecting high lati- 

 tudes only. C. radicans and C. arctica are probably synonyms, the yellow colom- of the 

 persistent sepals being discharged after flowering. Watson regards C. radicans as cer- 

 tainly a reduced form ; Nyman makes it distinct, giving Scotland as its habitat, but says 

 of C. palustris, " species ut videtur collectiva " ; Eries makes it a variety found in Lap- 



