140 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNALUS 



now in flower were Draba verna, called in Sm&land the 

 rye-flower, because as soon as the husbandman sees it in 

 bloom he sows his Lent corn ; dandelions, scorpion- 

 grass, violets and wild pansies, Thlaspi arvense, Litlio- 

 spermum arvense, sedges, 1 rushes, 2 Salisc, Primula veris, 

 as it is called, though neither here nor in other places 

 the first flower of the spring, 3 the Swedish caper, &c. 

 The lark was my companion all the way, flying before 

 me quavering in the air. Ecce suum tirile, tirile, suum 

 tirile tractat. 



c Hogsta is a Swedish mile and a quarter from 

 Upsala. Here the forests began to thicken. The 

 charming lark here left me, but another bird welcomed 

 my approach to the forest, the redwing, whose warblings 

 from the top of the spruce fir were no less delightful. 

 Its lofty and varied notes rival those of the nightingale 

 herself.' 



Linnaeus followed the high road, which still exists, 

 like the string of the bow which the railway makes in 

 curving towards Dannemora. 



1 In the forest are innumerable dwarf firs, 4 whose 

 diminutive height bears no proportion to their thick 

 trunks, their lowermost branches being on a level with 

 the uppermost, and the leading shoot entirely wanting. 

 It seems as if all the branches came from one centre, 

 like those of a palm, and that the top had been cut off. 



1 Carex. 2 Juncus campestris. 



3 The primrose blooms quite to the end of June in Upland. 



4 Pimis plicata. 



