22 BRITISH PLANTS 
morasses. The summer is very short, but the shortness 
of the summer is compensated by the great length of the 
polar day. The vegetation is poor and dwarfed, the 
most characteristic plants, besides the grasses and reeds, 
being the reindeer-moss (a lichen), and a few stunted 
bushes and trees (e.g., birch), which struggle on to the 
very limits of vegetation. A similar lichen-flora is also 
found on high mountains just below the snow-line. 
2. The Belt of Coniferous Forests (e.g., pine, fir, larch, 
etc.).—The winters are long and cold, and the summers 
short. The leaves of most of the trees are evergreen 
and small. The wood of these trees forms the source 
of our common timber, pine and deal. Two deciduous 
trees—the birch and the larch—accompany the evergreen 
conifers to the limits of tree-growth. The largest forests 
are found in Sweden and Russia. In Russia the belt 
extends southward to the latitude of Moscow. In the 
vertical direction, this type of vegetation characterizes 
the higher altitudes in mountainous regions everywhere, 
except in the Tropics. a 
3. The Belt of Deciduous Woodland (e.g., beech, oak, 
birch, ash, etc.).—These trees lose their leaves in winter. 
The climate is oceanic, and is milder and moister than 
that which prevails in the coniferous region. The winters 
are cold, except in the extreme western parts of Europe ; 
but frosts are intermittent, seldom lasting long or being 
very severe. Most rain falls in summer, when it is needed 
most. The rainfall is sufficient to support natural forest, 
and the general flora is rich and diversified. The greater 
part of the plains of Germany, France, and Great Britain 
was once covered with deciduous forests. In Germany 
much of this—about one-third of the whole surface— 
still remains ; in England only fragments of the original 
forests survive. With the growth of settled populations, 
these forests have fallen a sacrifice to the needs of 
civilization, providing timber for the builder, fuel for the 
smelter of iron, and ground for the tiller of the soil. 
Julius Cesar, in his march from the coast to London, had 
to make his way through the dense forests which at 
that time covered the country between the sea and the 
Thames. The clearing of these forests for economic 
needs, and the subsequent cultivation of the land, has 
earned for Kent the title of the Garden of England. 
