1898-1902. No. 2.] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMERELAND. 105 



arcticus is established by Richardson on specimens collected during 

 the first Franklinexpedition. 



As already mentioned, Freyn puts R. affinis together with a couple 

 of American species with rather small flowers and less divided basal 

 leaves, than has that plant, which for him stands as R. arcticus, in 

 other words, his R. affinis seems to come nearest to the form figured 

 by Hooker, 1. c, T. 6, as R. affinis /?. Such forms seem to be widely 

 spread in arctic as well as in temperate North America, and as they 

 have been taken for the type of the species, they have been the cause 

 of the wrong conception which Davis (1. c.) and Britton & Brown 

 (1. c. II, p. 77) have formed of Rob. Brown's species. The original 

 description (Chlor. Melv., p. 7) runs thus: "Ranunculus affinis, foliis 

 radicahbus pedato-multifidis petiolatis; caulinis subsessilibus digitatis; 

 lobis omnium linearibus, caule erecto 1 — 2 floro cum calycibus ovariisque 

 pubescentibus, fructibus oblongo-cylindraceis, acheniis rostro recurvo. 

 Obs. R. auricomo proxima species". 



This perhaps is not very satisfying, but there is in it at least, some- 

 thing which shows that Brown has not had the /S or y of Hooker in 

 his mind, viz., "foliis radicalibus pedato multifidis". I have also seen 

 the original specimens from Melville Island, that belong to the same 

 plant as is found in Spitsbergen, Greenland and Ellesmereland as well 

 as southward in America, and which is well represented by the figure 

 T. 6, a, of Hooker. Consequently that is the true R. affinis, what- 

 ever Hooker's /? and y may be. I have not as yet had an opportunity 

 of inquiring thoroughly about their place, but I am inclined to think 

 that most probably they belong to R. rhomboideus, Goldie. Perhaps 

 also there is a species overlooked which, even if spread principally 

 further south, reaches as far also into the Arctic Region as Melville 

 Island. Of this plant, with smaller flowers and less deeply cut basal 

 leaves, I have seen many specimens from the continent; from Melville 

 Island only the fi-agment in the herbarium of J. S. Smith mentioned 

 above. There were none in the Nat. Hist. Mus. or at Kew, notwith- 

 standing that Hooker records only those forms from Melville Island. 

 They were represented in Richardson's and other collections from the 

 arctic shore of the continent, and were perhaps included in the R. arc- 

 ticus of Richardson, even though he has R. rhomboideus besides it 

 in his list. 



The name R. arcticus was first used by Richardson in App. 

 Franklin I, Ed. 1, 1823, that is to say the same year as that in which 

 the Chloris Melvilliana of R. Brown appeared, but in the second edition 



