257 



Monlia fontana, a spring plant, i. e., growing in springs, repre- 

 sents the purslane family in northern Greenland. 



The chickweed family has seven representatives in Ellesmere 

 Land and eleven in northern Greenland. Except the two species 

 of Cerastium, they are very modest looking plants with small 

 flowers and all forming small mats. 



The pink family consists of the moss pink, Silene acaulis, 

 common also on the higher mountains of this country and 

 Europe, and three species of Lychnis or Wahlbergella. 



The crowfoot family is represented by species of Ranunculus , 

 all growing in wet places, especially under melting snow drifts; 

 some of these are rather showy. 



The most showy plant of the region is the arctic poppy, 

 Papaver radicatum. It is rather strange that this genus, be- 

 longing principally to warmer countries, should have furnished 

 the plant that above all gives color to the arctic flora. The 

 common poppies of the gardens, the opium plant of India, the 

 wild poppies of central Europe and California, are all leafy- 

 stemmed annuals, but there is a small group of poppies of the 

 arctic and alpine regions, which are perennials with short cespitose 

 rootstocks, crowned by a cluster of finely dissected leaves and 

 naked flower stalks. The stemmed poppies of warmer regions 

 have mostly red, purple, pink, or rarely white flow^ers. The 

 alpine-arctic poppies range from orange through yellow to white. 

 Papaver radicatum is common through arctic Europe and America, 

 in the Scandinavian mountains, on Iceland, and in our Rocky 

 Mountains as far south as Colorado. Two closely related species 

 are found in the Alps, another in the Pyrenees, another in the 

 Caucasus, another in the Canadian Rockies and Montana, and 

 two more in Alaska and eastern Siberia. If I do not remember 

 incorrectly, the group is also represented in the Altai Mountains 

 and the Himalayas. 



The mustard family is represented by several species of Draba, 

 two species of Cardamine, two of Arabis, two of CocJiIearia, and 

 one species each of the genera Lesquerella, Eutrema, Braya, and 

 Hesperis. The species of Cochlearia are interesting, not only 

 from the fact that they are used for food and as a remedy against 



