THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 63 



are still eminently useful in their way, as they are the only 

 source from which fuel is supplied in these regions; and 

 the husbandman who lamented in summer over the unpro- 

 ductive land covered with these weeds, finds good reason in 

 winter to retract his opinion, whilst he listens to them as 

 they crackle under the boiling pot, and watches the cheerful 

 flickering firelight on the walls of his cabin, which, but for 

 them, had been cold and comfortless. 



As it not unfrequently happens in our domestic circles 

 that in the absence of the elder brothers and sisters the 

 useful qualities of the younger branches are called forth, 

 which till then had passed unnoticed, just so on the Tar- 

 tarian steppes, such plants even as the little unnoticed Mil- 

 foil (Achillea) do their best to supply the place of their 

 vegetable brethren of a larger growth. It here attains 

 several feet in height, and is not a little prized by the in- 

 habitants, who value it as the best of all fuel. Wormwood 

 too (Artemisia) is here found side by side with a gigantic 

 Mullein ( Verbascum), the " Steppe-light/' as it is sometimes 

 called. 



But the Thistles are one of the most distinguished fami- 

 lies in these situations, where " they acquire a size, a deve- 

 lopment, and ramification which is really marvellous. Often 



