26 B Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



Alsine verna Bartl. var. rubella (Wahlenb.) Lge. 



Some very large specimens were collected; they form cushions ot aDOUt 

 10 cm. in diameter, with an abundance of flowers. There is a persisting but 

 thin primary root which is amply ramified. From the crown of the root numerous 

 repeatedly branched shoots arise, but destitute of roots. Warming ^ states that 

 in this species as well as in A. biflora, arctica, hirta, groenlandica, macrocarpa, 

 etc. the ramification is monopodial; thus the primary shoot remains vegetative 

 throughout the life of the plant. 



RANUNGULACEAE. 

 Caltha palustris L. 



Although absent from Greenland, Spitzbergen and Iceland, Caltha palustris 

 nevertheless is circumpolar; farther south it is widely distributed in Europe, 

 and on this continent it occurs in the Atlantic States east of the Mississippi, 

 from the mountains of Carolina and Tennessee northward to Newfoundland, 

 thence west to Minnesota and Saskatchewan; in some forms and varieties it 

 occurs also in Alaska, along the northern coast of Canada, and in arctic Siberia. 

 Naturally the species exhibits a somewhat different habit throughout a range of 

 such enormous extent, and it seems more safe to conclude that the species is 

 polymorphic, rather than to consider the modification in habit as being of 

 specific importance. This may be readily appreciated when we compare the 

 species as it occurs in the temperate regions of both Worlds with the types 

 known from the more northerly latitudes. 



In Norway, according to Blytt (I.e.), the stem is ascending from a decumb- 

 ent, sometimes rooting base, and the foliage shows a reniform outline with the 

 margin crenate; specimens with the stem rooting are by this author referred to 

 the forma radicans Forst., known especially from Dovre mountain and Finmark. 

 In Sweden the typical plant is comnion but Hartman records also the forma 

 radicans, beside a form of diminutive size with the leaf -margin entire instead of 

 crenate. In Russia, Ledebour describes the plant as having an erect or ascending 

 stem with the leaves suborbicular or reniform, crenate along the margin; further- 

 more the form with the stem rooting is also recorded by this author. Ascherson ^ 

 describes the German plant as having cordate leaves at the base but reniform 

 above; Buchenau^ makes the same statement but adds that all the leaves are 

 crenate; this author made also the observation that the variety laeta Schott, in 

 which the follicles are erect, was the most abundant while the var. typica Huth, 

 with the follicles recurved, appears to be very rare. In France * Caltha palustris 

 is quite frequent, and the leaves vary from reniform to somewhat cordate but 

 always with the margin crenulate. According to Mathieu * the basal leaves of 

 the Belgian plant are suborbicular, reniform, and crenulate at the base while 

 the cauline are crenulate all round. 



A similar leaf -shape is also characteristic of the American plant, and Torrey * 

 describes this as "orbiculate-cordate or reniform, obtusely crenate, or nearly 

 entire;" a variety integerrima (C. integerrima Pursh) is also mentioned in which 

 the basal leaves are wholly entire but the cauline obscurely crenate. In Gray's 

 Synoptical Flora a variety radicans Gray is described, the leaves varying from 

 "dilated-reniform to nearly truncate at base;" and according to this author C. 

 radicans Forst., C. asarifolia DC, C. arctica R. Br., and C. palustris var. sibirica 

 Regel are merely synonyms of this variety. Finally may be mentioned that in 

 some specimens from St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, the margin is entire in the 

 basal as well as in the cauline leaves, and the outline of the blade varies from 

 reniform to completely round in the basal foliage while the stem-leaves are 



' Caryophyllaceae (I.e.), p. 241. 



^ Flora der Provinz Brandenburg. Berlin, 1864, p. 17. 



' Flora der nordwestdeutsehen Tiefebene. Leipzig, 1894, p. 234. 



• De Lamarck et De CandoUe; Flore Francaiae. T. 4. Part 2. Paris, 1815, p. 918. 



' Flore gSn^rale de Belgique. T. 1. Bruxelles, 1853, p. 24. 



« Flora of New York. Vol. I. Albany, 1843, p. 17. ' 



