34 THE ASIATIC FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 



Lambe, and consisted chiefly of H.panicea. The collection contained in addition to 

 these 5 specimens from Copper Island of a calcareous sponge which Mr. Lambe 

 identifies as Grantia monstruosa Breitfuss, a species described lately from specimens 

 obtained in the European Arctic Ocean. 



PLANTS. 



It was qxiite to be expected that Steller, as an expert botanist, should have made 

 extensive botanical collections on Bering Island, and as he seems to have collected 211 

 species of plants there (see Pennant, Arct. Zool., Suppl., 1787, p. 38), he gathered more 

 species than any of the various collectors who visited the island afterwards. Thus the 

 combined collections of Dybowski, Wiemuth, and Kjellman include 144 phanerogams, 

 while I have brought home nearly exactly the same number of species. The combined 

 number of species, however, is much greater. Dr. Kjellman has published an interesting 

 account of the flora as revealed in the first-mentioned collections (Yega Exp. Yet. 

 lakt., IV, 1887, pp. 281-309), while the late Prof. Asa Gray, in 1885, reported upon my 

 collections in the Proceedings of the United States I^ational Museum, vii, pp. 527-529, 

 to which paper I added a few remarks {ibid., pp. 529-538). During my trip in 1895 I 

 had but scant time and facilities for collecting jjlants, and I confined myself chiefly to 

 an unsuccessful search for Gassiope oxycoccoides in the exact locality and about the 

 same season as I had collected it in 1883. In 1895 I was able to add a few species to 

 the flora, which Dr. J. if. Eose, of the National Herbarium, has kindly determined for 

 me as Garex rariflora, Kwnigia islandica, and Ranunculus hyperboreus. In 1897 my 

 wife paid more special attention to the plants than I could give them with the result 

 that several species have been added to the flora by her, viz, Savastana odorata; Foa 

 annua; Poa stenantha; Achroanthes diphyllos; Listera eordata; Gerastium maximum; 

 Gfirysosplenium kamtschaticum ; Achillea ptarmica speciosa, and Lathyrus palustris. 

 These identifications are by Dr. Eose. 



Dr. Asa Gray described one of my ericaceous plants as new, viz, Gassiope 

 oxycoccoides, and the late Dr. George Yasey afterwards determined one of the grasses 

 to be new and named it Alopecurus stejnegeri (Proc. U. S. Nat, Mus., x, 1887, p. 153- 

 figured as fig. 2, pi. xxiv. Grasses Pacif. Slope, by Yasey, pt. i, 1892). As these 

 species have not as yet been recorded from other localities they must be regarded 

 provisionally at least, as peculiar to the Commander Islands, and Dr. Kjellman's 

 statement to the contrary effect {torn, cit, p. 286) must be modified accordingly. 



Dr. Kjellman's concluding remarks {torn, cit., p. 289) are so interesting and 

 important that I venture to translate them here, as follows : 



The flora of the Commander Islands is chiefly composed of two eleuieuts. One of these consists 

 of species not entering the present artic region, or iit any rate not to be regarded as belonging to the 

 characteristic plants of this region. Most of these have their chief range of the present day extending 

 over the islands and coasts of the northern Pacific Ocean. These form the bulk of the vegetation 

 and determine its character. I regard them as arcto-Tertiary species, of which many, at leatt, have 

 formerly had a wider distribution than at present. 



The other element consists of species which by their present distribution are indicated as arctic- 

 Alpine. Several of these are to be regarded as among the characteristic plants of the present arctic 

 regions. 



The Commander Islands, with the other Aleutian Islands, compose a floral district which forms a 

 transition chiefly between three other districts, viz, the Mauohu-Japanese, the Amerioo-Pacifio and 

 the arctic district, although less closely related to the latter than to the other two, the northern 

 outpost of which it may be regarded to represent. 



