A Murvey of the 1'liytogeograpliy of tlie Arctic American Aicliipelago 
148. Oxytropis Bellii, (Britt.) Macoun. 
Spinia Oxytropis BdU, Britton, in Macodn, Contr. Canad. Bot.; S. BM, 
Britton & Brown, III. Flora. 
Distribution. |Mansfield Island, Bell (ex MicooN, App. Arctic)); Melville 
Island, M'MiLLAN (ex Macoun, App. Arctic), Winter Harbour, Hknnessky (App. 
Arctic). 
Geographic area. Eastern arctic and subarciic North America. 
I liave onlv after long hesitation resolved npon keepiiig up tliis name tor a 
separate species, as 1 am quite convinced about its having rcterence to a form that 
I have not separated from O. campeslris in the London collection. The only striking 
character which -Beitton luentions in the original description, is that the leaves are 
instructcd with »verticillate. leaflets, and according to the figure in Bbitton & 
Bkown i c II p 309, thia should be a rule witliout exception. But the Bgure 
in question is exceedingly bad even for that book, so that I should probably not 
have tbouglit of keepiitg up the speoies-name, had not Macoun in App. Arctic 
given a new and better representation of it. As for tlie arrangement of the leaflets 
three or four together oti the rachis, this character is used by Bdnge (Sp. gen. 
Oxytropis) for the definition of his section BaicaUa, and it may be a good mark of 
distinction. Occasionally three leaflets may, bowever, be found together m species 
of other sections also, and as the plate of Macoun shows, the quaternate arraiige^ 
ment is not the usual in the leaves of the, plant in question, as the figure of 
Britton gives at hand, but the leaflets are placed three, four, or perhaps more 
often still two, together. 
When I was inspecting the London collections, I was not aware of any new 
species being recorded in Bkbn.kb's Report from Melville Island, and such a circutn- 
stance as the .verticillate. leaves I may have easily enough overlooked in the small 
and not especially well preserved specimens I refered to O. c«mj,.,,/n.. Therefore 
I am afraid I introduce the same plant under two names for Melville Island. That, 
however, cannot be helped at present, and certaitily not all 0. campestr^ from 
Arctic America can be identified with the O. BeUn. "."'^V 
the BEKNiKB-expedition has found only this species in Melville Island and not the 
0. arcHea, founded on material collected there, the more so as ,t is recorded from 
Winter Harbour where such a plant should have been too conspicuous to have been 
overlooketl by Pabb. and his officers. The only explanation I can "»mk of^ t 
that the first coUectors must have looked upon all 0.,^ro,.. as belongmg to one 
apecies, and that Bbown has only had part of the matenal »"»"gl.t home a^ lus 
disposal when he established O. arctica and let it stånd as the only species m 
''""A^irongh revision of the atncrican Or„ro,i. perhaps will some time help 
to clear up the curious points in their distribution in the Arctic Islands, such as it 
