CHAPTER III. 



THE SUB-ARCTIC (AND SUB-ANTARCTIC) ZONE. 



FROM THE ARCTIC (AND ANTARCTIC) CIRCLE TO LAT. 58. 



A PECULIAR interest must be felt by all botanists in making 

 acquaintance with the flora of this zone, from the circum- 

 stance of its including Sweden, the native country of Lin- 

 naeus. Many of the plants we shall meet with, were those 

 which first occupied his thoughts ; for, beginning as he did 

 in the surest way to become great, by industriously using 

 the opportunities which lay within his reach, the young 

 Linnaeus first carefully studied the wild flowers of his own 

 neighbourhood and those which grew in his father's garden. 

 At no part of his life did his observations extend far beyond 

 Northern Europe, being chiefly limited to his own country 

 and Lapland, Denmark, and Holland : Germany appears to 

 have been the most southern country he visited. 



