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



coast: only in the archaean territory and very rare there: Fram Fjord, 

 at a lake in the Western Valley (1648); Harbour Fjord, in the Big 

 Valley (2344, leg. Schei), not seen in the lime- and sandstone region. 



Distribution: East and West Greenland, Arctic American 

 Archipelago, Arctic America, Labrador, higher mountains down to North 

 Carolina, Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Pribilof Islands, Northern and Cen- 

 tral Asia and Europe, Novaja Semlja, Spitsbergen, Faeroes, Iceland, 

 Azores, South America, Australia. 



Equisetaceae. 



Equisetum arvense, L. 



£". arvense, Linnaeus, Sp. plant., 1753; Mildb, Mon. Equis. ; Gelert, in Ostenfeld, 

 Fl. Arct.; Lange, Consp. FI. Groenl.; Kruuse, List E. Greenl.; Hart, Bot. Br. 

 Pol. Exp.; Greely, Rep.; Hooker, Fl. Bor. Amer.; Bkitton & Brown, 111. Fl. ; 

 Macoun, pi. Pribilof; Kurtz, Fl. Tschuktsch. ; Ledebour, Fl. Ross.; Feilden, 

 Fl. pi. Nov. Zeml. ; Andersson & Hesselman, Spetsb. kSrlv. ; E. arvense f. 

 arctica, Kruuse, Jan May. 



It is difficult enough to refer my specimens to any of the many 

 forms of the species, that have been named by different authors, but 

 that commingle without any distinction. Generally such small forms 

 with prostrate, assurgent, sterile stems and with fertile stems that bear 

 sterile branches at the base, are referred to var. alpestre, Wahlenberg 

 (Fl. Lapp., p. 296). The description there "caulibus sterihbus decum- 

 bentibus", however, applies to other forms besides that here in question, 

 and the specimens that are distributed in the Herb. Norm., fasc. 8, n. 

 99, under this name are much coarser than mine. It agrees consider- 

 ably better with E. riparium, Fries, Mantissa 3, p. 167—68, and with 

 the specimens distributed in the Herb. Norm., fasc. 7, n. 99. Perhaps 

 also its correspondence with var. arcticum, Rupr. is equally good. The 

 figures of MiLDE, 1. c, T. 1, figg. 11, 12, 13, seem to imply, that the 

 latter form is somewhat coarser and more branched, whereas figg. 9 a, 

 9 b, 10, repi-esenting var. riparium, (Fr.) Milde, resemble my speci- 

 mens more nearly. I think, therefore, that the latter name will best 

 apply to them. I have seen the same form, in the Copenhagen her- 

 barium, from East Greenland, Novaja Semlja and Spitsbergen, generally 

 under the name E. arvense var. alpestre, Wahlenb., some also, when 

 they were somewhat larger, were called var. boreale, (Bong.) Milde. 



Principally sterile stems appeared; at the Rutherford locality also, 

 however, a good number of fertile ones, that had generally begun to 



