392 THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF NOVAYA ZEMLYA, ETC. 



these are surrounded with peaty growths. Waigats has uo glaciers, 

 and no attempt indeed at any permanent snow deposit. In June 

 and July, as I saw it, the snow had generally disappeared, and only 

 remained in scattered patches on northern slopes or in hollows ; it 

 was then difficult to realize what severe winter conditions obtain 

 there. Thus we have in Waigats three distinct areas for the growth 

 of plants — the disintegrated rock ridges, the predominant marine 

 boreal clay, and the more local peat formations resting on the clay. 

 To each of these areas certain plants appear to be restricted, whilst 

 others are spread broadcast. Later on, under the heading of the 

 various species obtained, are remarks as to the localities they chiefly 

 affect. There are no trees, in the ordinary acceptance of the word, 

 growing on Waigats, but several species of Salix are abundant ; 

 they are, however, only stunted bushes, not growing higher than a 

 foot to a foot and a lialf. Betula nana appears as a procumbent 

 plant. Viewed in summer, the surface of Waigats does not present 

 an extreme boreal aspect. There is a good carpeting over the 

 valleys and flats of GraminecB, Juncacece, Carices, and Mosses, which 

 gives a verdant colouring to the landscape. In some spots bright 

 flowering plants are met with in great profusion, so that Waigats 

 does not by any means give the impression of a bleak sterile arctic 

 land, but rather of one where domesticated reindeer might thrive 

 and multiply. 



NoVAYA ZeMLYA AND LuTKE LaND. 



Viewed from seaward, the southern and south-western portions 

 of Novaya Zemlya, though rising in parts to a considerably greater 

 altitude than W^aigats, present a gloomy and uninteresting appear- 

 ance. In summer the snow is removed from the mountains, only 

 remaining in patches, and there are no glaciers or mer-de-glace. 

 The flat island of Meshdusharsky and low-lying Goose Land extend 

 as wide breadths of tundra between the inland ranges and the sea, 

 so that the mountains of the interior, probably some 2000 ft. high 

 in that latitude, are dwarfed by distance. The flora of Goose Land 

 has the same general character as that of Waigats, but one speedily 

 realizes that it is far poorer. We notice a great falling off in the 

 number of Composite; especially Senecio campestris and S.fri;fidus, 

 which brighten the peaty land of Waigats ; Rnbus ChamcEmorus, 

 which in Waigats covers acres with large white blossoms, is there 

 dwarfed and stunted; Androsace Chammjasme, which speckles leagues 

 of Waigats with its small flowers, is absent; and Primula far inosa, 

 so abundant in that island, is hardly met with in Goose Land ; 

 whilst Lloi/dia serotina and Allium sihiricum, conspicuous plants of 

 Waigits, seem altogether absent from Novaya Zemlya. As we 

 proceed northward the mountains increase in height, until in the 

 neighbourhood of the Matyushiu Shar the ranges of Novaya Zemlya 

 rise in series of bold and lofty peaks, snow-clad, and entwined by 

 glaciers. Phanerogamic vegetation in that alpine region is conse- 

 quently restricted to the shore line, the valleys, and the uncovered 

 slopes ; I cannot say with absolute exactness at what altitude phanero- 

 gamic vegetation ceases, but at 1000 ft. it is there very scarce. The 



