ON THE BOTANY OF THE BRITISH POLAR EXPEDITION . 77 



Splachnam Wormskioldii and other mosses have the same habit, and 

 in favoured situations, where not exposed to floods and secure from 

 drifting thaw at the opening of the season, these accumulations 

 form an excellent turf: this usually occurs only in small quantities, 

 but once a footing is established the process is sure if not rapid. 

 Dryas inteyrifolia and Saxifraya caspitosa are the chief turf-builders. 



The commonest plants in Discovery Bay were Saxifraya 

 oppositi folia, S. caspitosa, and Dryas inteyrifolia, and their flowers 

 were also most abundant, the former covering many square yards 

 with its magnificent sheets of red-purple ; the ground that it grows 

 on and the plant, except the flowers, being scarcely visible. I 

 have never seen any wild plant to compare with this Saxifrage for 

 a rich display of colour. Its flowers occur of every shade of pink 

 and purple, varying in hue at different periods of the season, and 

 it remains in blow from the earliest spring to the latest summer. 



The thawing of the snow is the signal for growth to commence, 

 and after that all plants alike have to take their chance of being 

 submerged and swamped for a time. Ve sic aria and Hesperis seemed 

 alone to demand a comparatively dry situation throughout ; on the 

 other hand some sedges, cotton sedges, and other plants which we 

 are accustomed to regard as marsh plants, have to subsist on soil 

 as dry afid hard as iron during most of the summer. 



The rarest plants in Discovery Bay were Pedicularis capitata 

 (two small colonies), Arnica montana (one plant), Armaria 

 yrcmhmdica (a few plants), Cardamine pratensis (a couple of plants), 

 the two Equiseta (three small colonies), Saxifraya rivularis (a 

 couple of plants), and Trisetum subspicatum (a few plants). 



The only scented flowers in Discovery Bay belonged to 

 Hesperis Pallasii, which in a strong sun gives forth a delicate 

 odour of hawthorn. 



Salix arctica and the species of Poa and Draba are eminently 

 variable in their growth ; of these, Salt® arctica is usually tolerably 

 constant for any given district. Saxifraya caspitosa var. uni flora 

 has two very well-marked forms, united by a series of slight 

 gradations ; the same may be said of Papaver nudicaule and Dryas, 

 and the extremes are to be met with sometimes side by side. 

 Moreover, the degree of hairiness in all plants is very variable, 

 seeming often to follow a reverse law to animal life, and decreasing 

 to the northward: this might be expected, as it is probably a 

 useless and luxuriant effort of growth; this is observable in 

 Pedicularis hirsuta, in Salix arctica, Draba hirta, and others; the 

 colours yellow and white are also very unstable and interchangeable, 

 as amongst all the Drabas ; in Saxifraya caspitosa, often yellow ; 

 *B Papaver nudicaule, sometimes pure, and often nearly pure, white; 

 and in Dryas inteyrifolia, which is frequently yellow. 



On the sides of mountains with a southern aspect, I estimated 

 the line of perpetual snow in the neighbourhood of Discovery Bay 

 at fourteen to fifteen hundred feet above sea-level. Spaces blown 

 clear of snow occur at higher levels upon exposed ledges, hillocks, &c, 

 and these will still support a few of the hardier flowering plants. 

 -Ine snow-fall is, however, never of any great depth, and during 





