96 B Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



section which is much more closely related to P. viviparum, and which shows 

 the same peculiar transformation of the flowers into bulblets, P. Macounii 

 Small. This interesting species was detected by James M. Macoun on St. Paul 

 island, Bering sea. 



Oxyria and Polygonum viviparum evidently originated in the polar regions; 

 during the glacial epoch they became distributed farther south, where they are 

 still in existence, especially in the alpine regions. P. Bistorta, on the other hand, 

 may be regarded as a southern type, as one of those which accompanied the 

 arctic flora on its retreat to the north. The fact that P. viviparum and its near 

 ally P. Macounii, besides P. Bistorta, and P. bistortoides, are all indigenous to 

 this continent seems to indicate that the section Bistorta must have an important 

 centre of distribution in the northernmost part of America, especially in the 

 northwestern corner. 



Koenigia islandica L. was not collected by the expedition, and in North 

 America it is known only from some of the islands of the arctic archipelago, 

 from Unalaska, and, according to Macoun, from "Moist mountains north of 

 Smoky River, Lat. 54° (Drummond)." It is one of the very few arctic plants 

 which are annual, and its geographical distribution may be of interest to students 

 of arctic botany. The species is almost circumpolar, since it has been recorded 

 from Greenland, Spitzbergen, arctic Scandinavia, arctic Russia, Nova Zembla, 

 and, as mentioned above, from some of the islands of the arctic archipelago. 

 But it is not among the plants which Kjellman has recorded from the north 

 coast of Siberia, and Ledebour cites no stations from arctic Siberia either; 

 farther south Koenigia islandica is known from Altai and Baikal. On the east 

 coast of Greenland it reaches as far north as Lat. 74° 30' (Dus^n), and it is not 

 uncommon on the west coast between Lat. 60° and 72° 48'. 



Koenigia is not monotypic, a second species being indigenous, or let us say, 

 endemic to the Himalayas, and this second species is also an annual. We have 

 thus in the genus Koenigia two species, exhibiting such extremely different 

 distribution as almost circumpolar (K. islandica), and endemic to the Himalayas 

 {K. nepalensis Don). 



The Caryophyllaceae are well represented in the arctic region, and of the 

 13 species known from the north coast, six are circumpolar; according to Hart 

 (I.e. p. 19), some of these plants are among those reported from the farthest 

 north, for instance, Cerastium alpinum Lat. 82° 50'; Alsine verna and Stellaria 

 longipes Lat. 82° 27'; Lychnis apetala Lat. 81° 52'; L. affinis Lat. 81° 50'; Silene 

 acaulis Lat. 81° 40'; Stellaria humifusa Lat. 78° 18'; Alsine arctica Lat. 72° 

 20', etc. In the Alps of Switzerland Silene acaulis ascends to an altitude of 9,500 

 feet, and Cerastium alpinum to 8,500 feet, according to Heer (I.e.); in the Rocky 

 mountains of Colorado I collected these two plants at an elevation of between 

 12,500 and 13,000 feet. While none of these arctic species have been found in 

 the Himalayas, Hooker (I.e.) mentions that the high-northern Cerastium trigynum 

 does occur in West Himalaya at an elevation ranging from 11,000 to 17,000 feet. 



With the exception of the monotypic Merckia, the other genera are widely 

 distributed farther south, and while these: Silene, Lychnis, StellfLria, Cerastium, 

 and Alsine, are mostly lowland plants in the Old World, Europe and Asia 

 especially, they are in North America represented by species which are princi- 

 pally mountain plants. For instance, of the 42 species of Silene credited to North 

 America according to the Synoptical Flora, 12 species inhabit the Coast range 

 (California), 6 the Cascade mountains, 10 the Rocky mountains, and 4 the 

 Appalachian mountains. 



Of the 12 species of Lychnis, 5 species inhabit the Rocky mountains, and 

 one the Appalachian mountains; of Cerastium, 17 species are known from this 

 continent, and 5 of these inhabit the Rocky mountains, and 2 the Appalachian 

 mountains; furthermore, with regard to Stellaria, 23 species are recorded from 



