DR. HOOKER ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 321 



Buppii and montana varieties of canina. Babington, in Henfrey's ' Bot. Gazette,' ] 850, 

 p. 141, roughly discriminates three British forms : — sylvatica, Pr., ' Herb. Norm.' {canina 

 (3, Fries, Novit. 272 ; sylvestris, Koch, non Lam.) ; canina, Linn, {sylvestris, Lam.), with 

 a var. /3 including lactea, Sm. ; and stagulna. Kit. {'persicce.folia, Er. ; lactea, Reich.), Avhich 

 I do not find quoted in any Arctic Flora, and so have not entered in my list of names. 



V. arenaria, DC, is very closely allied to canina; and though distinct in appearance, it 

 is difficult to find any good characters. Bentham quotes both lactea and sylvatica 

 as varieties under cauina. 



V. MuMenhergii, Torrey {Muhlenhergiana, Ging.). Torrey and Gray remark how very 

 near this is to canina^ \ and in the ' Flora Boreali- Americana ' the difficulty of pointing 

 out diagnostic characters is admitted ; it is, however, kept up by all authors, and is 

 no doubt a permanently but slightly altered form. It is found in Greenland. 



V. hicolor, Pursh, is regarded by the American botanists as a variety of arvensis, DC, 

 itseKa form of V. tricolor; to me it appears to be a permanently distinct plant, though 

 having but feeble diagnostic characters. Both tricolor and arvensis are Arctic European 

 and Siberian ; but hicolor alone is American, and found only to the eastward of the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



DiANTHUS repens, "VYilld. This, which is not Scandinavian, appears to me nothing but 

 an arctic form of alpina, L. Both are arctic. 



D. dentosus, Fisch., appears the same with D. Seguieri, Vill., or so nearly allied that it 

 is difficult to distinguish them. Neither are natives of Scandinavia. 



SiLENE infiata, L., and S. maritima, L. I have kept these forms apart, though they are 

 united by many authors (Bentham included). In the arctic regions they are distinguish- 

 able. S. maritima has not been found on the Pacific coasts, though S. inflata occurs in 

 N. E. Asia ? Watson observes that, on the coast of Britain, some forms of maritima 

 become so very like those of inflata as to be hardly distinguishable. 



>S'. paucifolia, Ledeb., from the shores of the Arctic Ocean, is unknown to me ; it is a 

 plant of Pallas, and evidently very near, if not identical with S. inflata. 



Lychnis apetala, L. I have no hesitation in saying that no satisfactory limits can be 

 assigned to the six forms ranged under this name. In the Himalaya, where it is abundant 

 at great elevations {macrorhiza and cuneifolia, Boyle), I have observed it to be singularly 

 variable in most or all of those characters which have been employed to separate its forms 

 in other countries. Durand (Kane's Voyage, Appendix) finds the characters oi pamiflora 

 Fisch., and uniflora, Led., to be present in Greenland specimens. Fries keeps apetala and 

 affinis distinct, the former being found throughout Lapland, the latter rare; he distin- 

 guishes affinis by its flowers, erect at period of expansion, and obovate angular (not reni- 

 form) seeds. 



L. sylvestris, Schkr., is doica a of Linnaeus, and diurna, Sibth. Jj. pratensi^, Spr., is 

 dioicaj3, L., and vespertina, Sibth. Bentham keeps them distinct. 



Sagina c(espitosa, J. Vahl, is Arenaria ccBsintosa, Fl. Dan. 2289, according to Lange. 



S. intermedia, Fenzl in Bupr. Flor. Samojed., is the same with nivalis, Fr. 



S. saxatilis, Wimm., is the same with Idnncei, Presl, and approaches very closely both 



