82 KJELLMAN, THE ALGiE OF THE ARCTIC SEA. 



On the other hand, it is during the winter-months that the reproductive function 

 attains its maximum of energy in the arctic algee. At least this was the case on the 

 north coast of Spitzbergen, and I suppose that the same state of things prevails also 

 in other parts of the arctic region. 



To begin with, it may be remarked that with regard to this branch of vital 

 activity there is a sharp difference between the raarine vegetation and the arctic land- 

 flora, especially the cryptogamic. It has been asserted that the phanerogams seldom, 

 nay only quite exceptionally, produce ripe fruit within the arctic regions. This assertion 

 is certainly quite unfounded, but it is true, indeed, that the production of seeds is 

 less rich here than farther southwards, and that the arctic phanerogams are endowed 

 with a peculiar conformation of their own, in order to get time, during the short 

 season, to form reproductive organs. Mosses ^) and lichens ^) rarely fructify, but in- 

 crease in the vegetative way. It must therefore be concluded that the plants of the 

 arctic sea live under more advantageous conditions than the land-plants in the formid- 

 able climate of the Polar countries. 



On the north coast of .Spitzbergen, during the winter 1872 — 73, I had the oppor- 

 tunity of following 27 species in their development, almost day by day. As I have 

 raentioned in my account of these researches, 22 of these species, belonging to various 

 classes and various families, were furnished with organs of propagation during the whole 

 or some part of the winter. Carpospores, tetraspores, egg-cells, brown and green zoo- 

 spores were produced and ripened. Some species, as Rhodomela lycopodioides, Lami- 

 naria solidungula, Elaehista lubrica, and Choetopteris 'plumosa formed reproductive organs 

 in a surprisingly great number, at least as great as the same or nearly related species 

 farther to the south. 



What has been said now, must not be thus understood as if the development of 

 reproductive organs were in all the arctic alga^ relegated to the winter-months. In 

 this respect great variety prevails. There are to be found species, as Rhodomela lyco- 

 podioides f. tenuissima, Delesseria sinuosa^ Rhodymenia palmata, Pliyllophora interrupta^ 

 Ptilota pectinata, Fucus evanescens, Laminaria Agardhii, Laminaria nigripes, Chordaria 

 flagelliformis, Elaehista lubrica, Pylaiella litoralis which bear such organs of some kind 

 or other at all times of the year, although, in many of thera, this function is most 

 energetic in winter. In other species as Lithodei-ma fatiscens, Chcetopteris plumosa, Spha- 

 celaria arctica, Laminaria solidungula, Älaria grandifolia a. o., the development of re- 

 productive organs is decidedly limited to or chiefly cai-ried on in late autumn and in 

 winter; again others have been found hitherto with propagative organs only during the 

 suminer-inonths, as Odonthalia dentata, Chantransia efjlorescens, Ceramium rubrum, Anti- 

 tli/imnion boreale, DictyosipJion foeniculaceus, Eetocarpus confervoides, Monostroma fuscum, 

 M. Blyttii etc. 



I have shown above, that arctic species occur also in the northern Atlantic. It 

 is a startling fact that most of them, when growing within the arctic region, are found 



') Cp. Berggren, Musci Spetsb., p. 19. 

 '•') Cp. Tu. Fries. Licli. Spetsb., p. 5. 

 ^) Kjellman, Vinternlgvcii'. 



