662 Chronicles of Science. [Oct., 



arrested in Norway under the 70th degree of latitude. There are, 

 however, some ligneous plants, viz. two species of Willow (Salix 

 herbacea and S. retusa), and Empetrum nigrum. The rest of the 

 vegetation consists of low herbaceous plants. Many of them are so 

 small as to have been passed over by travellers, and thus we find the 

 list of the plants varying. In 1675 Frederick Martens, of Hamburg, 

 describes and figures only^ll land species of plants. Phipps, in 1773, 

 collected 12, which were named and described by Solander. Scoresby 

 gathered 15, which were described in 1820 by Eobert Brown. In 

 1822 Captain Sabine collected 24, which were determined by Hooker, 

 who also made known the 40 species collected by Parry in 1827. 

 Sommerfelt gave the names of 42 species gathered by Keilhau in 

 1827. In 1838 and 1839 Vahl, a Danish botanist, along with M. 

 Charles Martins, collected at Bell Sound, Magdalena Bay, and 

 Smeerenberg, 57 species. In 1858 Messrs. Torell, Nordenskiold, and 

 Quennerstedt enriched the Flora by 6 sj>ecies ; and the Scientific 

 Swedish Commission, in 1861, added 21. Malmgren, the botanist of 

 the Expedition, made the total number of Spitzbergen flowering 

 plants 93. M. Lindblom enumerated 152 Cryptogamous jflants 

 (Mosses and Lichens), thus making the entire Flora of the Islands 

 245. 



The number of flowering plants is very small. Iceland, in lat. 

 65°, and with a much smaller surface, contains 402. Of the 93 

 Phanerogams of Spitzbergen 81 occur in Greenland ; 58 in the 

 islands which border the straits of Lancaster, Barrow, and Melville, 

 near the 75th degree of N. L., and 53 on the peninsula of Taymir, 

 in Asiatic Siberia. The crown of flowers which surrounds the north 

 pole is not so varied as that of other regions of the globe. In these 

 northern regions we find the same plants or species belonging to the 

 same genera and the same orders. Graminece, Cruciferai, Caryophyllacece, 

 and Saxifragaceas, predominate, and amongst the genera we find Draba, 

 Saxifraga, Ranunculus, Car ex, and Poa. All the species are 

 perennial. This seems to be a condition of their existence. 

 Spitzbergen combines a Scandinavian and an Arctic Flora. 



M. Martins contrasts the Spitzbergen and Lapland Flora with 

 that of the Alps. On the summit of the Faulhorn he finds 8 

 Spitzbergen species, viz. Ranunculus glaeialis, Curdamine bellidifolia, 

 Silene acaulis, Arenaria biflora, Dryas octopetala, Erigeron uniflorus, 

 Saxifraga oppositifolia, and Polygonum viviparum, and 40 of the 

 Lapland plants. None of these plants belong to the Arctic Flora 

 properly so called, but to the Scandinavian Flora. 



Martins next contrasts the Spitzbergen Flora with that of the 

 Jardin and of the Grand Mulets on Mont Blanc, with that near the 

 Vincent Chalet on Monte Bosa, the culminating point of the Col 

 Saint Theodule, and the summit of the Pic du Midi. 



The paper contains full lists of the plants on these elevated 

 localities, and exhibits in an interesting manner the relation which 

 they bear to the Scandinavian and Arctic Floras. 



