A CHAT ABOUT PLANTS. 143 



in spite of eternal winter, and relentless storms. Ice-clad 

 Spitzbergen even boasts still of a willow, the giant of these 

 Arctic forests, the woody stems of which, it is true, creep 

 so close to the ground, and conceal themselves so anxiously 

 in the turf bogs, that the small leaves, never rising more 

 than an inch or two, are hardly discoverable amid the 

 thick moss. The plains bordering on the Icy Sea are full 

 of cryptogamous plants, and show even, here and there, 

 patches of green turf, a most gladsome sight to the weary 

 traveller. The swampy districts, also, which there extend 

 further than eye can reach, are covered with a closely woven 

 carpet of mosses, minute in size, and yet so abundant, 

 that they support immense herds of reindeer for a whole, 

 dreary season. Even the perpetual snow of the polar 

 regions is often adorned with beautiful forests of diminu- 

 tive plants, and extensive fields of bright scarlet are seen, 

 consisting of myriads of minute fungi and microscopic 

 mushrooms, which form the so-called "gory dew," beheld 

 by early navigators with a wonder nearly akin to awe. 

 Captain Eichardson found the ground near the Arctic circle, 

 though it remains frozen throughout the whole year to 

 a depth of twenty inches, covered with bright flowering 

 plants; and the great Humboldt saw at a height of more 

 than eighteen thousand feet, on the uncovered rocks of the 

 Chirnborazo, traces of vegetation piercing through the eter- 

 nal snow of those inhospitable regions. So far from ice 

 and snow being hostile to plants, it has been observed that 

 some of the most beautiful flowers on earth grow in the 

 very highest and bleakest parts of the Alps. There the 

 snow has hardly melted, and lies still close at hand, when 



