1898-1902. No.l] VASCULAR PLANTS OF ELLESMER ELAND. 133 



(317), Fram Harbour (1125, 1400), Bedford Pirn Island (1255). South 

 coast, common, specimens from: Fram Fjord (1612), Harbour Fjord 

 (4263). West coast: along the Hell Gate to Lands End. 



Distribution: Greenland, Arctic American Archipelago, Arctic 

 America, Labrador, Canada, Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Alaska, 

 Pribilof Islands, Northern Siberia, Himalaya, Ural, Arctic Russia, Novaja 

 Semlja, Spitsbergen, Franz Joseph Land, Northern Scandinavia, Scotland, 

 Faeroes, Iceland. 



Luzula arcuata, (Wahlenb.) Sw. 

 var. confnsa, (Lindeb.) Kjellm. 



Juficus arcuatus fi, Wahlenberg, F1. Lapp., 1812; L. confusa, Lindeberg, Resa i 

 Norge, 1855; Bochenau, Mon. June; Lange, Consp. Fl. Gioenl.; Kruhse, List 

 E. Green).; Nathorst, N. W. Gronl.; L. hyperborea, R. Brown, Chlor. Melv., 

 ex p.; Gkeely, Rep.; Juncoides hyperboreum, Britton & Brown, 111. Fl. ; L. 

 arcuata, Hart, Bot. Br. Pol. Exp., ex p.; Hooker, Fl. Bor. Amer.; ex p.; 

 Ledebour, Fl. Ross., ex p.; L. arcuata var. hyperborea, Andehsson & Hes- 

 selmax, Spetsb. karlv. ; L. arc. var. confusa, Kjellman, in Vegaexp.; Gelert, 

 in GsTENFELD, Fl. Arct. ; L. campestris var. congesta, Hart, 1. c. 

 Fig. Fl. Dan., T. 1386. 



It was tirst after considerable hesitation, that I resolved upon using 

 the above name for the plant here in question. Its near affinity to L. 

 arcuata cannot be doubted, but the difference in the habit and the 

 limits of its area of distribution speak rather decidedly in favour of 

 looking upon it as a separate species, as Lindeberg, 1. c, p. 9, also 

 advocates for. The characters in which, according to Lindeberg and 

 other authors, it should differ from the typical L. arcuata, are hardly, 

 however, as constant as required for the establishment of a species. 

 Indeed, the perianth-parts are generally shorter than the capsule, which 

 again, is considerably blunted and almost orbicular, but these characters 

 may also be found in a L. arcuata, which is, for the rest, quite typical. 

 Thus the only thing left is to define it entirely by characters of habit, viz., 

 coarser growth, higher and stiffer culm, considerably denser and larger 

 heads (spikes) of flowers, generally in a lesser number (often a single 

 one only), on shorter, coarser and stiffer peduncles. On this hardly 

 more than a variety can be established, even if this form is, within a 

 great area, the only one to be found. All specimens from Greenland in 

 the Copenhagen herbarium, belong to var. confusa, as does also the 

 arctic american specimens I have seen in the London collections. From 

 America I have seen only a single specimen of the main form in the 

 Nat. Hist. Mus. It was collected by Macoun, 1889, at "Mtns n. of 



