FLOUA OF WESTERN ESKIilAt'X-LAXD. 19 
supply the necessary heat. Bh-ches andAVillows fimiish materials for bows, Spruce-trees for 
arro\ys, while drift-wood affords means for constructing the skeleton of the haidars, or the 
walls of the hut. Man cannot be charged with having defaced the primeval aspect of this 
region ; he has left everything as it was in the beginning. The mineral wealth rests undis- 
turbed in the boAvels of the earth ; the vegetable hingdom still exercises an absolute sove- 
reignty; and the animal creation swarms over the boundless steppes, rarely disturbed by the 
sight of the hunter, and uncontrolled by the voice of the herdsman. 
It is not often that a Plora is so strictly original, and that its general character may be 
so accurately defined. Out of 242 Phanerogams, 2 are trees, 23 shrubs, 194 perennials, 
7 biennials, and 12 annuals. Nature does not seem to have trusted to the region many 
plants whose propagation solely depends upon the ripening of their seeds ; an uncertani 
harvest in a district where the quick approach of winter puts a sudden stop to vegetable 
operations. Nor are the physical circumstances favourable to the formation of wood. !Mopt 
of the ligneous plants are mere frutkuli, very dwarfish, and more under the ground than 
above it. Only a few Willows, a Rose, the Red Currant, a Birch, and a Spircea are deserving 
of the name of shrub. Trees are still more scarce, no more than two kinds {Pimis dim and 
Salix speciosa) having as yet been discovered. The White Spruce occasionally attains the 
height of forty or fifty feet, and a circumference of from fom- to five feet. The largest AVillow 
{S.speciosa) seen was twenty feet liigh and nearly five inches in diameter. It had such a juvenile 
appearance that, judging fi'om the growth of trees in milder climates, it would have been 
pronounced to be five or six years old; yet on closer examination its age proved more than 
eighty years. The leaves are alternate in 208 species, opposite or verticillate in 30, simple 
in 224, and compound in 15. Many flowers are large, 170 regular, and 09 irregidar. 
The predominant colour of the floral envelopes is white in 83 species, greenish in 59, yellow 
in 43, purple in 24, blue in 17, rose-colour in 7. and red in 3. It is remarkable that red 
occurs only in three instances, and that scarlet is wanting. The predonnnance of white m 
plants approaching the Pole is analogous to the change of colour of many Arctic ammals,- 
the ermine, the ptarmigan, the hare, and others, whose outer covering turns white m the 
beginning of winter. The fruit is diy in 33 species, and succulent m 9. Thus, spcakmg 
generally, it may be said that the plants of Western Eskimaux-land are perennial herbs, 
have alternate, simple leaves, regular wliite or yellow flowers, and a dry ^t In all, 31o 
species have been discovered: 35 Thallogens, 38 Acrogens, 45 Endogens, and 197 Lxogens; 
or 242 Phanerogams and 73 Cryptogams. The most numerous Orders are the Mosses and 
Composite, the Former being represented by 30, the latter by 26 species^ Mo. s 1 e 
family of the Lichens with 21 members, that of the Grasses with 20,^.../..y.^ w th Li, 
Eosce. with 18, Crucifer. .vith 17, and Ban.nc.Iace. and C^^^^e^ '^.^^^^ 
The most extensive genera are Sa^ifra^a, containing 18 species, PoenhUa 9, Saha^. Eanu.- 
!1; Inl %nZ 8, and FeJic^cis and H,pn.u 1 ; Senecio has but G representatives. 
and the rest still fewer. 
c2 
