E. W. Nelson; and medical notes and anthropological
notes relating to the natives of Alaska and the northwestern Arctic
region, made by Dr. Irving C. Rosse.

All these notes were made upon the cruise of the revenue-cutter Corwin
in 1881.

Very respectfully,

H. F. FRENCH,
_Acting Secretary_.

Hon. J. W. KEIFER,
_Speaker of the House of Representatives_.

BOTANICAL NOTES ON ALASKA.

BY JOHN MUIR.

BOTANICAL NOTES.

By John Muir.

INTRODUCTORY.

The plants named in the following notes were collected at many
localities on the coasts of Alaska and Siberia, and on Saint Lawrence,
Wrangel, and Herald Islands, between about latitude 54 deg. and 71 deg.,
longitude 161 deg. and 178 deg., in the course of short excursions, some of
them less than an hour in length.

Inasmuch as the flora of the arctic and subarctic regions is nearly the
same everywhere, the discovery of many species new to science was not
to be expected. The collection, however, will no doubt be valuable for
comparison with the plants of other regions.

In general the physiognomy of the vegetation of the polar regions
resembles that of the alpine valleys of the temperate zones; so much so
that the botanist on the coast of Arctic Siberia or America might
readily fancy himself on the Sierra Nevada at a height of 10,000 to
12,000 feet above the sea.

There is no line of perpetual snow on any portion of the arctic regions
known to explorers. The snow disappears every summer not only from the
low sandy shores and boggy tundras but also from the tops of the
mountains and all the upper slopes and valleys with the exception of
small patches of drifts and avalanche-heaps hardly noticeable in
general views. But though nowhere excessively deep or permanent, the
snow-mantle is universal during winter, and the plants are solidly
frozen and buried for nearly three-fourths of the year. In this
condition they enjoy a sleep and rest about as profound as death, from
which they awake in the months of June and July in vigorous health, and
speedily reach a far higher development of leaf and flower and fruit
than is generally supposed. On the drier banks and hills about Kotzebue
Sound, Cape Thompson, and Cape Lisbourne many species show but little
climatic repression, and during the long summer days grow tall enough
to wave in the wind, and unfold flowers in as rich profusion and as
highly colored as may be found in regio