1 88 Climate 



provide that they shall make the utmost of the very 

 short spring and summer which are all that fall to their 

 lot. Their time of sleep lasts on an average ten 

 months, and during the remaining two months they 

 have everything to do, so that it is most necessary that 

 they should make the most of their time. The days 

 are of course very long, which is a help, while the 

 nights are so light as to be hardly like night ; and if 

 Professor Nordenskjold's observations be trustworthy, 

 it seems that the plants do indeed turn every moment 

 to account, by growing all night as well as all day. 



But many of them do a great deal of growing in 

 advance, so that as soon as the summer comes their 

 blossoms and fruit, which need heat more than the 

 leaves, may be ready at once to take advantage of it. 

 These plants, that is to say, make very large, strong 

 buds, which are packed full of leaves and blossoms in a 

 more or less undeveloped state, but with all their parts 

 ready, before the winter sets in. Directly the growing 

 time comes round again, therefore, they can burst out, 

 and begin to gather food from the air at once, and the 

 plant is able to blossom very early, thus ensuring as 

 much time as possible for the perfecting of the fruit. 



Most of the plants ripen their fruit, but some few are 

 not able to do so, except now and then, when the 

 summer is hotter or longer than usual ; and some which 

 are annuals further south become perennials here, as 

 they would not have time to grow from seed, and ripen 

 seed, in one short season. 



During the long winter many are of course protected 

 by the snow; but there are wide surfaces here and 

 there left quite bare of covering, and yet even here 

 plants manage to survive, some without any protection 



