270 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



the Scandinavian peninsula, and it is cultivated for green 

 fodder in Peru up to the height of 13,800 feet, but seldom 

 ripens its grain higher than 10,000 feet. (Meyen.) 



Potatoes, which have been cultivated from time immemo- 

 rial on the banks of Lake Titicaca, yield abundantly at 

 Fort Liard, and grow, though inferior in quality, at Fort 

 Simpson and Fort Norman. They have not succeeded at 

 Fort Good Hope, near the 67 th parallel. At the latter 

 place turnips in favourable seasons attained a weight of 

 from two to three pounds, and were generally sown in the 

 last week of May. At Peel's River the trials made to grow 

 culinary vegetables had no success. Nothing grew except 

 a few cresses. Turnips and cabbages came up about an 

 inch above the ground, but withered in the sun, and were 

 blighted by early August frosts. 



In the preceding narrative, as well as in the geographical 

 sketch, we have had frequent occasion to allude to several 

 great divisions of North America, each of which has a 

 peculiar physiognomical character in its vegetation. 



1st. The eastern woodland country constitutes the first 

 division, in which the forest extends from the Atlantic 

 westward till it meets the great prairies. 



2nd. The second division lies to the north of the forest 

 lands, and is appropriately named the " Barren Grounds.'' 

 This tract has its greatest north and south extension 

 on the eastern coast. On the shores of Hudson's Bay 

 and the Welcome it reaches from the 60th or 61st pa- 

 rallel to the extremity of the continent, but narrows to 

 the westward ; since the boundary line of the woods takes 

 a diagonal or north-east direction from the 91st meridian, 

 and, before reaching the 120th, has risen to the 67th 

 parallel. Further to the west the Barrens Ground form a 

 border to the Arctic Sea of greater or less breadth accord- 

 ing to the northerly prolongation of the continental pro- 



