COL. FEILDEN AND MR. GELDART ON SPITSBERGEN PLANTS. 47 
IV. 
NOTES ON A SMALL COLLECTION OF 
SPITSBERGEN PLANTS. 
By Colonel II. W. Feilden and Mr. Herbert D. Gkldart. 
Read 27th November, 1894. 
The small collection of plants from Spitsbergen, described and 
named by Mr. Herbert 1). Geldart, was made during a flying 
visit to that interesting country in the month of July, 1894. 
The localities in which I collected plants were only three in 
number, namely, Advent Bay, Ice Fiord, where I gathered during 
the night of the 1st July; again, during the morning of the 
2nd July, in the immediate vicinity of our anchorage, and, in 
the afternoon of the same day, at the head of Advent Bay ; again, 
whilst on shore for a few hours at Green Harbour, Ice Fiord, on 
the 4th of July; and, finally, at Dane’s Island, when on shore 
for a couple of hours on the Gth of July. 
The first week of July is rather too early for collecting plants 
in the Polar regions, for many have not commenced to show their 
blossoms, and, consequently, may very easily be overlooked. The 
extraordinary rapidity with which flowers develope and come to 
maturity under the continuous light of the Polar regions is very 
striking. You may search an area for blooms one day, and see 
only a few Saxifrages in bud peeping out, and twenty-four hours 
later the same spot may be bright with many kinds of blossoms. 
It should be remarked that in Spitsbergen, as well as in other 
parts of the Arctic regions, the rarest plants are not, as a rule, to 
be found in the lowlands, or near the shore-line, for there the most 
fertile-looking areas are usually to be met with ; and these often 
present a very gay appearance, from the amount of bloom which 
greets the eye, though the plants which produce them may be 
limited in species. 
