118 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [AUGUST 
Bemerkungen iiber die Weiden Nowaja Semljas und ihren geneti- 
schen Zusammenhang” (Act. Reg. Soc. Sci. Upsala III. 1877), for * 
without comparing a good series of specimens of S. arctica and. 
S. glauca from Northern Asia and Europe it is difficult to get a cor- 
rect understanding of those forms from North America; but at 
present it is impossible for me to consult any European herbarium. 
In this article I shall try to present a critical account. of the 
species related to S. arctica Pall.; in a following paper I intend to 
discuss S. glauca L. and the species related to it; while in a third 
paper a key. will be given containing the species treated in the first 
two papers and also those of sections RETICULATAE and HERBACEAE 
(RETUSAE), together with a few other species the systematic posi- 
tion of which is not yet fully understood, but which are best placed 
near one or the other of the groups in question. In this key it is 
intended to indicate briefly the main characters of the species, 
because full descriptions cannot be given here except of the new 
species and varieties I wish to propose. 
The history of most of the species must be explained, I am sorry 
to say, at considerable length, since otherwise it would be impossible 
to account for the fact that so many well marked types have been 
interpreted so differently by various authors. I commence with 
S. arctica Pall., which is the nucleus of the group of forms I shall try 
to elucidate. 
1. S. ARCTICA Pall., Fl. Ross. 17:86. 1788.—Paxias described 
this species from the “ plaga arctica muscosa nuda secundum Sinum 
Obensem et versus glacialem Oceanum”’ in such an unmistakable 
manner that it could never have been misunderstood had not 
RosBert Brown, in 1819, proposed a new S. arctica, ignoring alto- 
gether the older name of Pattas. In Ross, Voy. Expl. Baffin’s Bay 
(appendix, p. 148, and ed. 2, 2:194, both in 1819), BRowN men- 
tioned only the name, and a description of his arctica was first given 
by RICHARDSON in FRANKLIN, Narr. Jour. Polar Sea, Bot. App. 752 
(reprint, p. 24). 1823. In the same year Brown published his 
own description in Chloris Melvilliana, which was issued separately, 
while Capt. PArry’s Voyage, of which the Chloris is only a part 
(App. Suppl. pp. 259-305), did not appear until 1824; but in 1823 
there also appeared a second edition of FRANKLIN’s book and 
