324 DR. HOOKER ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 



inflato membranaceo nigro-piloso calyce 3-4-plo longiore, sutixra carinali liatid in- 

 trusa. — G. B. 

 Hab. Eschscholtz Bay, in Kotzebue's Sound, Seemann. 



In many respects similar, especially in habit, stipules, and form, to A. aljnnus, L., but 

 always more glabrous, with more deeply emarginate or almost bilobed leaflets, fewer 

 flowers, longer calyx, narrower petals, shorter keel, almost sessile ovary, and widely dif- 

 ferent pod, which is broadly linear oblong, not pendent, inflated, fully an inch long, and 

 rounded at the ends. 



The introduction of a perfectly new and distinct arctic plant into the supplementary 

 observations appended to this paper requires some notice here. I am indebted for it to 

 to Dr. Seemann, who pointed it out to me, on his return from the Tiji Islands (after the 

 first part of this paper was printed), as a plant omitted in his Botany of the ' Voyage 

 of the Herald,' and as that alluded to by him as Oxytro^ris x>olaris in the narrative 

 of that voyage. It is so like Astragalus alpinus, that it had been mixed with specimens 

 of that plant, which is abiindant throughout Eskimo-land. I have sought in vain, 

 through a very large suite of specimens of A. alp'uius and orohoides (which it also in 

 many respects resembles), for another specimen of polaris ; it must therefore at present 

 be considered as an addition (eighth) to the small list of peculiarly arctic plants men- 

 tioned at p. 258, and the sixth to the species peculiar to Arctic N. "VY. America enume- 

 rated at p. 267. 



OxTTKOPis camjyestris, DC. Many names are included under this, which represent 

 species, varieties, and sjnionyms in the opinions of different authors. Of these, 0. borealis, 

 DC, is referred (with 0. sordida) to campestris by Ledebour. Of O. Middendorffii, Trautv., 

 I have seen no authentic specimens ; but Trautvetter's plate appears to identify it with 

 a not uncommon form of the same plant. 



O. sordida, Pers. The plant of Eries, ' Herb. Normale,' is undoubtedly referable to 

 campjestris ; Buprecht (Flor. Samojed.) goes at length into its characters, describes it as 

 very near 0. campestris e. verrucosa, Led., from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This latter, 

 E^uprecht refers to borealis, DC, which differs from campestris " in the glandular verru- 

 cose parts, and calyx covered densely with black hairs," — all very inconstant characters 

 in arctic specimens. Nyman and Pries put O. sordida under campestris. Koch and 

 Ledebour both regard it as a variety, /3. sordida. 



O. polaris, Seem., alluded to (but not described) in Seemann's ' Narrative of the 

 Voyage of the Herald,' is founded in error. See Astragalus polaris, supra. 



O. arctica, Br. E^uprecht appears to refer the Arctic Siberian and Kotzebue Sound 

 plant of this name to O. sordida. Ledebour refers Brown's arctica of Arctic America to 

 a form of TJralensis. Torrey and Gray follow ' Elora Boreali- Americana,' in keeping it 

 distinct, with the observation that it probably does not differ from TJralensis. 



O. nigrescens, Eisch. This is certainly a very distinct and remarkable form ; but I much 

 doubt its permanent distinctness from O. TJralensis. In the ' Elora BoreaK- Americana ' it 

 is regarded as probably very nearly allied to arctica {TJralensis). 



Spirjea chamtsdrifolia, L. The only apparently Arctic European habitat which I find 



