FLORA. 175 



above zero until the month of May. Then, under the 

 influence of a more genial temperature, the breath of life 

 passes into the slumbering, inert vegetation. Then the 

 reddish shoots of the willows, the poplars, and the birches, 

 hang out their long cottony catkins ; a pleasant greenness 

 spreads over copse and thicket ; the dandelion, the bur- 

 dock, and the saxifrages lift their heads in the shelter of 

 the rocks ; the sweet-brier fills the air with fragrance, and 

 the gooseberry and the strawberry are put forth by a 

 kindly nature ; while the valleys bloom and the hill-sides 

 are glad with the beauty of the thuja, the larch, and the pine. 



' On the southern margin of the wooded region, as in 

 Sweden, Russia, and Siberia, extend immense forests, 

 chiefly of coniferous trees. As we move towards the 

 north, these forests dwindle into scattered woods and 

 isolated coppices, composed chiefly of stunted poplars and 

 dwarf birches and willows. The sub-alpine myrtle* and a 

 small creeping honeysuckle with rounded leaves are met 

 with in favourable situations. Continuing our northerly 

 progress, we wholly leave behind the arborescent species ; 

 but the rocks and cliffs are bright with plants belonging 

 to the families of the ranunculaceae, saxifragacese, cruci- 

 ferae, and gramineae. To the dwarf firs and pigmy willows 

 succeed a few scattered shrubs such as the gooseberry, 

 the strawberry, the raspberry, pseudo-mulberry (Rubus 

 chamcemorus) indigenous to this region, and the Lapland 

 oleander (Rhododendron laponicum.) 



1 Still advancing northward, we find, at the extreme 

 limits of the mainland, some drabas (Cruciferae), potentillas 

 (Rosaceae), burweeds and rushes (Cyperaceae), and lastly a 

 great abundance of mosses and lichens. The commonest 

 mosses are the Splechnum, which resembles small umbels ; 

 and, in moist places, the Sphagnum, or bog-moss, whose 

 successive accumulations, from a remote epoch, have formed 

 with the detritus of the Cyperaceae, extensive areas of peat, 

 which at a future day will perhaps be utilised for fuel/* 



* The Arctic World: Its Plants. Animals, and Natural Phenomena. London T 

 Nelson & Sons. 1876. 



