ON THE BOTANY OK THE BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION. 75 



Bay ; when the sun was strong and at its greatest altitude in the 

 daytime, this protection raised the inside temperature a decree or 

 two, but at most times the inside and outside temperatures were 

 umiorm, or nearly so, and constantly as low as 33° P.; the seeds 

 planted were peas, beans, celery, wheat, mustard and cress— all of 

 these germinated and grew. Nor is the excessive cold of the 

 winter months m these regions, involving as it does upwards of 

 one hundred degrees of frost, fatal to the vitality of mature seeds : 

 wheat, which had been left at Polaris Bay by Hall's Expedition of 

 1871, and which had been thoroughly and entirely exposed to the 

 weather tor four successive winters and summers, germinated when 

 sown m Discovery Bay ; while the beans and peas we experimented 

 upon had experienced, upon the ship's upper deck, the whole 

 seventy of our winter, with a minimum temperature of 71° F. 

 it is thus quite possible that migratory birds, currents of air or 



I!/'. 01 ' ?' agents ' may iu some 1;lre Cil * es introduce mature 

 seeds to a soil prepared to receive them, but it should always be 



2 ,ii U !• I , T? h "aportwK* ought not to be attached to the 



distribution of plants by such means. 



As a rule the various flowering plants occur in tufts or patches, 

 i e same species i growing in considerable quantity at each station, 

 and perhaps not again to be met with, or not for a considerable 

 u stance ; pen colonies are sometimes thus formed, the brightest 

 a «1 aigest of which will be found to be due to GW f.li^nnsa. 

 nSrtT S 1S *, remai 'kable exception ; it seems to have no 



slttpt f P i°T' T\ is only t0 be foimd vei T rarel y m single 



£fcS? ! U i ' * h0lds a VG1 ' y P 1 "***™' tenure, and will 

 probably soon become extinct. 



foot ^ T n ° d0ubt distributed oy drifting pieces of the ice- 



rtXf maS f S 0f ice wbicb W ^ *&°™, serving 



o 1 s l\°uT Yey Pg\ fr ° m bay t0 bay: this ma8t » ^wever, be 

 suecfp, L ,aU U ! lgbt be "JPe^. si «ce the range of so many 

 species is extremely confined ; for instance, Bellot Island, lat. 



Whinl \ Z \ S , W ° s P ccies » Saxifraga ritmUtm and Stone acaulis, 



were not found for two degrees to the south of it, and one, 



six i, , T h £ 0t observe(1 *«** of Proven, hit. 72° 20'. Three 

 lenan-T "? D } scovei T B W ™t met with elsewhere : these are, 

 frnnibZ ^."." / <"" / "'". Andromes sepUmtrionalis, and Desehamjma 

 and «L H ^>''>;'\Pf<mi and IWicuhms capita* are both rare 

 occuntS lmi . ted , m their distribution, and several species 

 X^i f C V n ¥' 69 ° 14 '> reappear here for the first time, 

 green eKt « 10U ? h 0Ccrarin S in clusters, by no means give a 

 others ™ v S?. lMld *? a P e » /; /" 7 "'"'»'» UtWoUum, Sali.r mrtica, and 

 sed-es n^l !ii g th ? shi,1 " le a P° n wllich the y grow— most 



«epara t ; rlt^f^^ ^ ^ow in tufts, or by sending up single 

 forms *w?rSn , , httle or no leat-growtli. Drya$ integrifolia 



"»«ch Sonn f nC J ' 0WU tU1 * f ' while tho Saxifri «" a «1« c0 ^ 

 Tbf , Wlth a ****** brown growth. 



and eenernli, "\T\ io ™ n Z this P :ut of Grkraell Land is azoic, 

 ip St P, /, • f. £• C , layey shale >— sometimes, as about ten miles 



• -rauicRs 1 mrd— forming an excellent, fine-grained black 





