178 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



in these cold regions, where cultivation of &JIJT 

 plant for food is impossible, for the mean tem- 

 perature is far below the freezing point, and 

 the summer lasts only from four to six weeks. 

 Here the year is divided into one long intensely 

 cold night arid one bright and fervid day, which 

 quickly brings to maturity the scanty vegetation. 

 Spitzbergen and the north of Greenland are the 

 chief lands included in it. Most of this zone is 

 covered with perpetual ice and snow, on which no 

 vegetable, except the singular red snow fungus t 

 is ever found ; and even on the few portions of 

 land left uncovered by these, extreme poverty 

 is their character, whole tracts being entirely 

 destitute of vegetation, and in others, the little, 

 and sometimes very pretty plants, grow in turf- 

 like patches. Some of the plants are peculiar 

 to the polar regions, others grow even in our 

 own country. Some of the principal plants are 

 species of saxifrage, poppy, rush, scurvy-grass, 

 ranunculus, cotton-grass, willow, etc. 



