270 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



the north southwards beyond the southern limits of Fin- 

 land bring about this difference. While the Swedish flora 

 numbers some 2330 different kinds of plants one half 

 phanerogamic, the other half cryptogams the Finnish 

 flora numbers only some 900 of each, or 1800 in all. 



But Dr Ignatius, Director of the Bureau of Statistics, 

 reported in 1878 : ' The Finnish flora at the present time 

 comprises 1080 phanerogamic, and 1800 crypt ogamic 

 plants, without reckoning the fungi, which of themselves 

 exhibit as many species as all the other cryptograms 

 together.' 



'It is interesting/ writes Dr Helms, 'to pass by slow 

 degrees from death to life, commencing in the extreme 

 north-west with the observation of the first indications of 

 organic life within the Polar Circle, and tracing its succes- 

 sive manifestations till its ever-increasing power of produc- 

 tion is seen towards the southern coast of Finland and its 

 granitic island archipelago. In the extreme north, on the 

 waste steppes, through which flows the Tama, it is with 

 great effort apparently that Nature produces a somewhat 

 crippled and deformed vegetation. The appearance of the 

 country is saddening in the extreme. The dwarf birch and 

 the juniper, with the reindeer moss, clothe but sparingly the 

 sunny side of the rocks and hills, and a sickly tanne or fir 

 tree stands here and there in a mountain kloof. Further 

 on we come upon valleys, to which the sharp cutting wind 

 cannot gain access. Here the blackthorn, the sweet briar, 

 and the aspen expand and develope their leaves with 

 astounding rapidity under the glowing sun of the month 

 of June, and are seen embosomed in a grass of wonderful 

 length growing on the river banks. To the south of 

 Utsjoki the pine and the fir, and about the same latitude 

 also the mountain ash, begin gradually to make their 

 appearance, and with these the list of the more common 

 kinds of trees found in Finland may be considered com- 



C). But pretty far to the north of this the berry- 

 ing bushes of the country, such as the blaeberry, the 



