FEBRUARY. 77 



as a memento of a casual but well remembered acquaintance, 

 and of an interesting and instructive hour. 



Mosses and lichens ! how much, oh, ye despised and neg- 

 lected plants, are the pleasures and comforts of man indebted 

 to you ! Mosses, indeed ! what would the gardener do with- 

 out your aid ; what the horticulturist avail himself of, in lieu 

 of your spongy stems and susceptible though tiny foliage, for 

 his packing and his transport of his choice trees, scions, buds, 

 and roots ! or the florist, who, in the well imitated heat of the 

 tropics, depends on you to assist him to rear into flowers his 

 exquisite epiphytes and gorgeous orchids ! And see how 

 tenderly Nature has anticipated all your care and skill, and 

 with what gentleness she cozily and snugly hides, amidst the 

 shaggy ponds of lichen or the silken tufts of moss, her rarest 

 pets and sweetest floral gems. 



As far northward as between 69° and 70° we find on the 

 island of Disco an arctic flora, that partakes in no mean de- 

 gree of a choice flower garden. In a ravine back of a settle- 

 ment on that island, visited by Dr. Kane, the washings of the 

 melted snows had accumulated a rich mould, in which grew 

 luxuriantly a varied vegetation : — 



" The mosses, which met the lichens at a sort of neutral 

 ground between rock and soil, were particularly rich with 

 Arctic growths. So sodden were they with the percolating 

 waters, that you sank up to your ankles. Nestling curiously 

 under their protecting tufts rose a complete parterre of tinted 

 Jiowers, consisting of Gentians, Ranunculus, Ledum, Draba, 

 Potentilla, Saxifrages, Poppy and Sedums. The Arctic turf 

 is unequalled : nothing in the tropics approaches it for spe- 

 cific variety : and in density it far exceeds its alpine con- 

 gener. Two birches (Betiila alba and B. nana), three 

 willows (Salix laTiata, S. glauca and /S*. herbacea), that 

 noble heath, the Andro'meda (A. tetragona), the whortleberry 

 {Vacciniiim Vitis IdcB^'a and V. tiliginosnm), the crowberry 

 (EmpUruni nigrum), and a Potentilla, were, in one instance, 

 all wreathed together in a matted sod, from whose intricate 

 net-work, rising within an area of a single foot, I counted 

 no less than six species of flowering plants." 



