60 H. G. SIMMONS. [sec. arct. exp. fram 



where circumstances are hardly such as to allow of development of 

 fruit or ripe seed every year. 



The specimens in the Nat. Hist. Mus. herbarium are not generally 

 accessible for a closer inspection as they are closely pasted to the paper, 

 some, however, certainly belong to the variety, and as far as may be 

 concluded from habit, that is the case with all specimens from the Ar- 

 chipelago and the arctic part of the continent. Some, however, may 

 have 8 stamens, as certainly some Novaja Semlja plants have, and, 

 perhaps, also some of Lund's own specimens. 



My specimens are, mostly at least, 4-staminate, but show an abun- 

 dant growth. The only locality where I found the plant also was un- 

 usually favorable, a small, sheltered slope below a high rock wall with 

 a southern exposure, and richly watered as well as manured from the 

 height above, where the glaucous gull had a nesting place. Here it 

 formed, together with a large Mnium sp. and other mosses, a densely 

 matted vegetation. Flowering specimens as well as others with ripe 

 seed in abundance, were found August 8th, 1900 — the only time I found it. 



Occurrence. South coast: Seagull Rock in the Harbour Fjord (2600). 

 Its occurring here is of special interest, as it had not reachedGreenland ^. 



Distribution. I must take both forms together, as sufficiently 

 detailed statements about the area of the variety are not at hand; 

 Franchet, 1. c, has even omitted the original locality, the Finmark, 

 among the localities for it, which he records. Therefore I mark with 

 an * the countries in which its occurrence is noted, or from whence I 

 have seen specimens: *Arctic American Archipelago, *Arctic America, 

 Northern Temperate America, British Columbia, Iowa, *Golorado, *Rocky 

 Mountains, Alaska, *Unalaschka, Pribilof Islands, *St. Lawrence Island, 

 Arctic and Temperate Asia down to the Himalayas and the Caucasus, 

 Northern and Central Europe (*Finmark), *Novaja Semlja, *Spitsbergen. 



Saxifraga oppositifolia, L. 



S. oppositifolia, Linnaeus, Sp. plant, 1753; Stebnbeeg, Revis. Saxifr. ; Engleb, Mon. 

 Saxifr. ; Lange, Consp Fl. Groenl. ; Keuuse, List E. Greenl.; Nathohst, N. W. 

 GrOnl.; Hart, Bot. Br. Pol. Exp.; Greely, Rep.; Simmons, Prel. Rep., et Bot. 

 Arb. ; Hooker, Fl. Bor. Amer. ; Britton & Brown, 111. Fl. ; Kjellman, in Vega- 

 exp. ; Ledebour, Fl. Ross. ; Andersson & Hesselman, Spetsb. karlv. 

 Fig. LINN.EUS, Fl. Lapp., T. 2, fig. 1; Fl. Dan., T. 34. 



This species is the most common one in Ellesmereland, as it is 

 probably everywhere in arctic countries. I have never visited a place 



^ Indeed, there is in the Stockholm herbarium, one specimen labelled "e Groen- 

 landia, ded. Vahl fil., 1842", but that probably is from Spitsbergen. 



