1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 59 



Potentilla, maculata., Pourret. 



This species is recorded by Greely from Discovery Harbour. Most 

 probably it is P. emarginata that has been mistaken for it, as the 

 latter species is absent from Greely's list. As it is nowhere found in 

 the Arctic Archipelago, and as in Greenland it does not go north of the 

 Disco region on the west coast, it is very improbable that it should grow 

 in Grinnell Land. 



Saxifpagaceae. 



Chrysosplenium alternitoliuw, L. 

 var. tetrandrum, Lund. 



Ch. alternifolium-tdrandrum,, N. Lund, Beretn. Ostfinm,, 1846 ; Ch. alt. var. tetran- 

 drum, Fbanchet, Mon. Chrysospl.; Andersson & Hesselman, Spetsb. karlv. ; 

 Ch. alternifoUum, Hooker, FI. Bor. Amer., ex p.; Britton & Brown, 111. Fl., 

 ex p.; Ledebour, Fl. Ross., ex p.; Ch. tetrandrum, Fries, lakt. arkt. vSxt. ; 

 Simmons, Prel. Rep. et Bot. Arb. 



Even if certain differences are immediately visible when a typical 

 specimen of the arctic Ch. tetrandrum is compared with the Oh. alter- 

 nifoUum of temperate regions, they nevertheless are united by inter- 

 mediate forms, and Franchet, the monographer of the genus, has 

 (1. c, p. 107) put the first-mentioned plant back in its old place as a 

 variety of the latter. Th. M. Fries also, has himself expressed some 

 doubt whether the species established by him could be standing as such 

 (Nov. Semi, veg., p. 37). Warming, who has studied it from a flower- 

 biological point of view, seems most disposed to keep it as a separate 

 species, even though he says (Arkt. Vaext. Biol, p. 4) that it has 

 doubtless sprung from Ch. alternifoUum as a degraded, and for arctic 

 conditions better adapted form. The principal character, the four stamens, 

 he explains directly from the self-pollination, which again becomes a 

 necessity, because insects for the pollination are so scarce (the right 

 ones are perhaps totally absent?). The other differences between the 

 arctic and the temperate form, the shape of the leaves, the stature, etc., 

 can in a greater material be seen to be continually connected by inter- 

 mediate forms. As for the more abundant development of creeping 

 stolons, such may be found equally developed in 8-staminate forms 

 from arctic or sub-arctic regions. It also seems quite natural, that such 

 an adaption for vegetative multiplication should take a prominent place, 



