22 BRITISH PLANTS 



morasses. The summer is very short, but the shortness 

 of the summer is compensated by the great length of the 

 polar day. The vegetation is poor and dwarfed, the 

 most characteristic plants, besides the grasses and reeds, 

 being the reindeer-moss (a lichen), and a few stunted 

 bushes and trees (e.g., birch), which struggle on to the 

 very limits of vegetation. A similar lichen-flora is also 

 found on high mountains just below the snow-line. 



2. The Belt of Coniferous Forests (e.g., pine, fir, larch, 

 etc.). The winters are long and cold, and the summers 

 short. The leaves of most of the trees are evergreen 

 and small. The wood of these trees forms the source 

 of our common timber, pine and deal. Two deciduous 

 trees the birch and the larch accompany the evergreen 

 conifers to the limits of tree-growth. The largest forests 

 are found in Sweden and Russia. In Russia the belt 

 extends southward to the latitude of Moscow. In the 

 vertical direction, this type of vegetation characterizes 

 the higher altitudes in mountainous regions everywhere, 

 except in the Tropics. 



3. The Belt of Deciduous Woodland (e.g., beech, oak, 

 birch, ash, etc.). These trees lose their leaves in winter. 

 The climate is oceanic, and is milder and moister than 

 that which prevails in the coniferous region. The winters 

 are cold, except in the extreme western parts of Europe ; 

 but frosts are intermittent, seldom lasting long or being 

 very severe. Most rain falls in summer, when it is needed 

 most. The rainfall is sufficient to support natural forest, 

 and the general flora is rich and diversified. The greater 

 part of the plains of Germany, France, and Great Britain 

 was once covered with deciduous forests. In Germany 

 much of this about one-third of the whole surface 

 still remains ; in England only fragments of the original 

 forests survive. With the growth of settled populations, 

 these forests have fallen a sacrifice to the needs of 

 civilization, providing timber for the builder, fuel for the 

 smelter of iron, and ground for the tiller of the soil. 

 Julius Caesar, in his march from the coast to London, had 

 to make his way through the dense forests which at 

 that time covered the country between the sea and the 

 Thames. The clearing of these forests for economic 

 needs, and the subsequent cultivation of the land, has 

 earned for Kent the title of the Garden of England. 



