50 COL. FEILDEN AND MR. GELDART ON SPITSBERGEN PLANTS. 
place of the Sea-Pink of our shores. As you step on to the moor- 
land that looked so brown and sad from seaward, you are delighted 
to find that everywhere it is bedecked with flowers. Prominent 
above all is Dryas octopetala in clumps and in small patches, 
occupying every little hillock and dry spot, where its numerous 
blossoms give quite a cheerful air to the surroundings. The Arctic 
Poppy, with its delicate sulphur-tinted petals, waves its head in all 
directions ; and the bright yellow Drabas are conspicuous, whose 
flower-stalks stand up in groups three to four inches high. If you 
look a little more closely, you will find a colony of delicate little 
yellow-blossomed Saxifrages peeping at you (Sax. flagellaris), and 
note its tendrils stretching in various directions, and taking root 
in the soil. More striking, and giving colour to the ground, is the 
larger Sax. Hirculus ; whilst several other species of Saxifrage that 
delight in damp spots, push their blooms through the green Moss 
by the side of rivulets. Pedicular is hirsuta is a wide-spread plant, 
but as it grows singly and broadcast, it does not leave so strong 
an impression on the eye as many of the other plants. 
When I remarked that Dryas octopetala was the most prominent 
plant, I ought to have coupled with it Andromeda tetragona ; but 
though it grows most plentifully at Advent Bay, it was scarcely 
in flower at the time of my visit, and I had difficulty in finding 
its wax-like bloom to add to my collection. Ranunculuses abounded, 
and every damp spot was brightened by their familiar yellow flowers, 
though I have noticed that the little 11. pygmaius affects drier spots 
than some of its relatives. In the small pools, the white tufts 
of Eriophorum bow themselves to the breeze. Sax. oppositifolia, 
Silene acaidis , and the Drabas are in no way confined to the 
shingle of the shore-line, but are spread broadcast over the moor- 
land. There is, however, one plant that grows only, as far as I am 
aware, in close proximity to the sea, and that is Mertensia maritima, 
which, with its fleshy leaves and stalk, and bright blue petals, 
seems to me a plant out of keeping with Arctic surroundings. 
I have no doubt that, before long, the hitherto generally accepted 
theory, that the present Polar flora owes its presence to the 
gradual creeping back of plant-life from the south since the 
glacial epoch, must be modified. That certain species of plants 
now found in the Polar regions have been transported there from 
more southern latitudes by the agency of birds, winds, waves, 
