200 PITHOEA. 



been the preceding year. Owing to this 

 misfortune, I found bread made of spruce 

 fir bark at present in general use. The 

 Buckbean [Meny ant lies trifoUata) is very 

 seldom used, on account of its bitterness*. 



Flax is scarcely ever cultivated here. 



In the evening I strolled out from the 

 post-house at Bumoen towards the sea side 

 in search of natural productions. The 

 brooks close to the shore swarmed with 

 innumerable little oval Notonectce (Boat- 

 flies), no bigger than nits (N. minut issima); 



* Linnaeus in the Flora Lapponica, ed. 2. 53, tells 

 us that " in times of extreme scarcity the roots of 

 this plant, dried and powdered, are mixed with a small 

 quantity of meal, and serve to make the miserable 

 bread of the poorer settlers in Lapland, which is ex- 

 tremely bitter and detestable." In the same work, 

 p. 259, he describes an excellent kind of bread made 

 of the roots of Calla palustris, which though acrid 

 when fresh, become wholesome if dried, and boiled 

 afterwards in water, as is the case with its near rela- 

 tion our common Arum, and the Jairopha Manihot, 

 or Casava, of the West Indies. 



