Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/480

 446 THE EARLIEST RECORD OF ARCTIC PLANTS. ten thousand whales. I have not been able to find any record of the Arctic flora prior to the period named, so that Martens is believed to have been the first writer on the Arctic flora. His descriptions of Arctic plants are given in the third part of his book (page 41), Von den PJlanzen so ich in Spitsbergen gefunden. The descriptions are accompanied by four plates, illustrating in all fourteen species. Although the diagnoses are somewhat puzzling, they certainly are much more accurate than those given by the learned English botanist ; and his drawings, as a supplement, will enable the reader to identify the phanerogams and one of the two algae. The first plant which Martens describes is '* Kraut mit Aloe- blattern" (table G, fig. a), which Eay named '^Aloefolia Jiorum cajntidis rotundis." This plant, judging from the illustration, is undoubtedly Saxifraga stellaris L., forma comosa Poir. The state- ment that the flowers form small, flesh-coloured heads ("nudo oculo vix discernendi ") would seem to indicate that this plant is the Arctic forma comosa, the flowers of which are transformed into small bulblets. Besides this, the basal leaves of the drawing agree better with this than with S. nivalis L. " Eingekerbtes Kleinhauswurtz " (table F, fig. a) is well drawn, and represents Saxifraga nivalis L. The " Hauswurz " of the Germans is now the popular name for Sempervivum tectorum, so that the identification is not so far wrong. Eay has described this plant under the name ** Sedum minus dentatum, capitulis sqiiamosis.'' The flowers are described in this species as having five petals, so that Martens would surely have seen the single flowers of the fore- going species, if there had been any, instead of simply speaking about their forming small heads, a fact which seems to favour the supposition that he meant the bulblets, as I have mentioned above. Four species of " Hanen-Fiissen" ( Crowfoot") are also fully described and accurately figured. One of these, however, is Saxi- fraga rivularis L. (table H [G], fig. c). The others are : Rajiunculus hyperhoreus Rottb. (table H, tig. c), R. pygmcens Wahlbg. (table G, g. e), and Pi. sulphureus Soland. (table I, fig. d). The Saxifraga he describes as having white petals, and the figure given is a good illustration of this species. Ray has named these ^' Banunculi Spitzbergenses, the popular one for the plant. It was undoubtedly C. fenestrata R. Br., which is so far the only known species from Spitzbergen. Ray, it appears, accepted Martens' identification, but, although he did not find any difference between this and C. Britanica, he never- theless called it C. Sjntzbergensis. The "Kraut als Mauer Pfeffer" (table F, fig. c) is Saxifraga oppositifolia L. ** Mauerpfeffer " is now the German name for some Sedum, to which the plant shows great resemblance. The flowers are described as purple, which agrees well with this species of Saxifraga. Ray called it " Sedum minimum vermiculatum pur- pureum Spitzbergense.'^ '* Natter- Wurtz " (table I, fig. a) agrees well with Polygonum
 * ' Loffel-Kraut" is a species of CockJearia, and this name is still