PROP. MARTINS : VEGETATION OP SPITZBERGEN. 



139 



north, clearly exemplified ; and adding tliese latter to the Phaneroganiia, we 

 make the total nnmber of species of Spitzbergen into two hundred and 

 forty-five. The number of Phanerogams in Spitzbergen — which are only 

 ninety-three — is very restrained. Iceland, situate under the 65° N. lat., the 

 area of which is much smaller, includes four hundred and two species. As 

 we advance further south the proportion rapidly augments ; thus, Ireland, 

 again, smaller than Spitzbergen, numbers nine hundred and sixty phanero- 

 gams. The plants of this distant island are then the lost children of the 

 European Flora, those which can best resist the cold, or rather, since the 

 snows cover them in winter, those which can live and flower with the least 

 amount of heat. 



Of the ninety-three phanerogams of Spitzbergen, only one species is 

 alimentary, viz : — Cochlearia fenestmta, the three congeners of which C, 

 officinalis^ C. danica, and G. anglica, inhabit the shores of the Atlantic 

 ocean. These plants containing an acrid and bitter principle, are employed in 

 medicine as anti-scorhutics, but are not in any sense alimentary. In Spitzbergen 

 owing to the absence of atmospheric heat, these principles are so slightly 

 developed, that the Cochlearia can be used as a salad, a precious boon for 

 sailors, for these anti-scorbutic principles, though weakened are still present, 

 and prevent disease which the cold, the humidity, the use of salt- 

 meats, and the privation of vegetables, conspire to develope. The grasses 

 during the summer, are a grand resource for the rein-deer, the only herbivo- 

 rous animal found in Spitzbergen. 



I must now give a complete list of the plants of Spitzbergen arranged 

 in the natural orders. 



FLOWERING PLANTS OF SPITZBERGEN. 



[i^'.B.— The species in italics are found in France. Those marked with 

 an asterisk are exclusively arctic, and are not found in Scandinavia.] 



Eanunculace^. — Ranunculus "glacialis, L. ; R. hyperboreus, Eoth ; R. 

 pygmaeus, Wbg. ; R. nivalis, L. ; R. sulfureus, Sol. ; R. arcticus, Rich. 



Pap averages. — Papaver nudicaule, L. 



Crucifer^. — Cardamine pratensis^ L. C. heUidifolia, L. Arahis 

 alpina, L. ; Parrya arctica, R. Br. ; Eutrema Edwardsii R. Br. * ; Braya 

 purpurescens, R. Br. ; Draba alpina, L. ; D. glacialis, Adams, * ; D. pauci- 

 flora ? R. Br. * ; D. micropetala 1 Hook, * ; D. nivalis, Liljebb. ; D. arctica, 

 Fl. Dan. ; * D. corymbosa, R. Br. ; D. rupestris, R. Br. ; D. hirta, L. 

 D. Wahlenhergia. Hartm. ; Cochlearia fenestrata ; R. Br. 



CARYOPHYLLACEiE — Sllcne acttidis, L. ; Wahlbergella (Lychnis) apetaki. 



