291 



and placed in one row (Fig. 1 a, b). I have however from 

 Iceland and the Faroe islands seen specimens of A.petrœa 

 with rather short and broad pods in which the seeds are 

 unregularly situated, now and then in two rows. In such 

 pods the seeds are more narrow in that the radicle is turned 

 aside, so that the seeds have been more or less oblique, 

 also the wings of this seeds are somewhat reduced. It may 

 therefore be probable, that A. arenicola is a rather young 

 species having developed from A.petrœa. 



IL 



Braya glabella Richardson. 



The surgeon of the Franklin Expedition, John Richard- 

 son, has described this plant in: Narrative of a journey to 

 the shores of the Polar Sea by Captain Franklin, London 

 1823 in a botanical supplement. From the preface of this 

 supplement it is evident, that Robert Rrown, besides 

 having prepared several families, has also contributed in 

 various ways to this botanical work. Perhaps this may be 

 the reason, that Platypetalum purpurascens R. Br. in Parry's 

 voyage has been quoted as a synonym (at all events this is 

 the case in the German translation of the paper in Robert 

 Brown's vermischte botanische Schriften I, p. 497, which only 

 has been at my disposal). Parry's voyage for the disco- 

 vering of the northwest passage, however carries the date 

 1824, but has probably been contemporary with the above 

 mentioned paper of Richardson. These two plants have 

 generally been considered as the same, and the name Braya 

 glabella as published in 1823 preferred to Platypetalum pur- 

 purascens of 1824 1 ). 



1 ) After having seen the original papers, I find that, in Richardsons 

 botanical appendix, Platypetalum purpurascens is not quoted as 

 synonym to Braya glabella and that the botanical supplement to 

 Parry's voyage: Ghloris Melvilliana by Robert Brown, carries the 

 date 1823. 



19* 



