THE PAGE OF NATURE. 225 



Professor Fries of Upsal, the presiding genius of these 

 plants, gathered in Sweden, within a space of ground 

 not exceeding a square furlong, more than two thousand 

 distinct species. " This country," says Berkeley, " with 

 its various soils, large mixed forests, and warm summer 

 temperature, seems to produce more specifis than any 

 part of the known world ; and next in order, perhaps, 

 are the United States, as far as South Carolina, where 

 they absolutely swarm. A moist autumn after a genial 

 summer is most conducive to their growth, but cold, wet 

 summers are seldom productive. The portion of the 

 Himalayas, which lies immediately north of Calcutta, is 

 perhaps almost as prolific in point of individuals as the 

 countries named above, but the number of species on 

 examination proves far less than might at first have been 

 suspected. It is probably not a fifth of what occurs 

 in Sweden. Great Britain, though possessing a con- 

 siderable list of species, is not abundant in individuals, 

 except as regards a limited number of species. The 

 exuberance even in the most favourable autumn is not to 

 be compared with that of Sweden or many parts of Ger- 

 many." They are found in the Arctic and Antarctic 

 regions, almost as far as the limits of vegetation. They 

 penetrate to the dreary regions of Greenland and Lap- 

 land, supplying the natives with their tinder, and with 

 an excellent styptic for stopping blood and allaying 

 pain ; and they announce to the hapless exiles of Sibe- 

 ria, when their gaily-coloured forms spring forth from 

 the crevices of the rocks, and in the dark haunts of the 

 gloomy fir-woods, that the stormy blasts of winter are 

 past, and that the spring and the summer, those short 

 p 



