120 B 



Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



Gentiana arctophila Griseb. and G. propinqua Richards, are the only species 

 collected by the expedition of the genus; G. glauca Pall, was found by Kjellman 

 at Port Clarence, Alaska. It sqems quite remarkable that the two former ones 

 have been found in the arctic- region, since they are annual for, as we know, 

 annual plants are extremely rare in the polar regions; Koenigia is generally 

 cited as the only annual plant in the arctic; with respect to the third species, G. 

 glauca, this is perennial according to Grisebach in Ledebour's Flora (I.e.). How- 

 ever, when comparing the representation of Gentiana in the polar regions alto- 

 gether we notice that of the six species credited to arctic Russia five are also 

 annual or sometimes biennial; and the same is the case of those recorded from 

 arctic Scandinavia as well as from Greenland. The accompanying table (Table 

 7) will show the species represented in the arctic zone and their general dis- 

 tribution; thus we may obtain a better view of the representation of the genus 

 at these high-northern latitudes as well as in the mountains farther south. It 

 may be stated, at the same time, that G. tenella extends as far north as Lat. 71° 

 on the east coast of Greenland (Dus6n) and that the six species enumerated as 

 arctic Scandinavian have been reported from Lat. 70° to 71° 10' in Finmark. 



Furthermore, with respect to the altitudes reached by some of these species 

 in the mountains, the Scandinavian species, except G. serrata, ascend to an 

 altitude of between 3,000 and 4,500 feet according to Blytt (Norges Flora) ; in 

 the Alps of Switzerland, Heer (I.e.) has recorded G. campestris and G. tenella 

 from 8,500 feet, G. nivalis from 9,000 feet, and G. verna from 10,000 feet; in the 

 Altai mountains G. tenella and G. verna ascend to 6,500 feet, and finally in the 

 Himalayas G. aurea and G. tenella reach an elevation of not less than 10-14,000 

 feet, according to Hooker (I.e.). 



However, several of these are more typically lowland plants occurring for 

 instance on the seashore, notably G. serrata, G. campestris, G. Amarella, and G; 

 aurea. 



