GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



159 



still smaller: so small, indeed, that half a dozen 

 plants, with their roots, stem, branches, and 

 leaves complete, may be laid out on the page of 

 a duodecimo volume. Even beyond the limit 

 of these trees are found, however, several small 

 plants; and among them -4, 



one which jiarticularly 

 deserves to be noticed — 

 the reindeer moss, which 

 foniis the principal food 

 of the reindeer, an ani- 

 mal employed by the 

 Laplanders both for 

 drawing their sledges for 

 food,andforniilk. In the 

 winter, when the ground 

 is covered with snow 



these sagacious creatures dig with their feet to 

 get at the moss beneath. When boiled in water, 

 this moss affords a nutritious jelly, which has 

 been employed as a remedy in consumptive 

 complaints. 



Next after the dwarf birch and dwarf willow, 

 come the common birch, tlie mountain ash, and 

 the Scotch fir, with two or three otlier species of 

 willow; tlien a species of alder, which has been 

 called the cold alder, from its peculiar place of 

 growth, not being found south of latitude 60°; 

 the bird cherry, and the aspen, the gooseberry 

 and the raspbeiTy. Still travelling towards the 

 south, we arrive successively at the northern 

 limit of the ash, the oak, and the beech. The 

 northern limit of the oak has been traced 

 throughout Europe. At Dronthiem, in Norway, 

 on the coast of the Atlantic ocean, this tree is 

 found in latitude, GS'^; in the eastern part of 

 Europe, on the confines of Asia, it ceases to grow 

 in latitude 5~^°; a remarkable proof of the 

 superior mildness of the climate on the western 

 shore of the old continent, as compared with 

 that of the interior; for it is by no means true, 

 as generally supposed, that the climate of the 

 sea coast is universally milder than that of the 

 interior. If we pursue the limits of vegetation 

 through Asia, to the eastern extremity of the 

 continent, we shall find the cold little, if any 

 thing diminished, as we approach the shores of 

 the Pacific ocean. The oak languishes on the 

 banks of the Argoun, towards the east of Asiatic 

 Russia, in the latitude of London, eight hundred 

 miles nearer to the equator than the point at 

 which it ceases to grow on the opposite shore of 

 the continent. At Pekin, in China, situated 

 only fifty miles from the sea coast, (in the lati- 

 tude of the south of France, where orange trees 

 grow without protection in the open air,) the 

 severity of the winter's cold far exceeds that cx- 

 pei-ienced in any part of Great Britain, and falls 

 short only two or tliree degrees of that at North 

 Cape, the furthest extremity of Europe. When 

 we speak of the mildness of a maritime climate, 



we must therefore keep in mind that the ex- 

 pression applies only to the western, not to the 

 eastern shores of the continent. 



It is easy to comprehend why the neighbour- 

 hood of the sea, in countries situated far north, 

 should tend to render the climate milder, while 

 in the tropical regions it moderates the intensity 

 of the heat, since it is known that the tempera- 

 ture of the ocean varies much less than that of 

 the land; the waters from the equator being 

 continually mixed with those of the Polar 

 regions by the current of the gulf-stream. Why 

 the inhabitants of the eastern shore do not enjoy 

 this advantage, as well as those of the western 

 shore of the continent, is in part explained by 

 the prevalence of westerly winds in these lati- 

 tudes; a westerly wind bringing with it the warm 

 and humid atmosphere of the Atlantic to the 

 inhabitants of Iceland and of Norway, while it 

 brings the dry and cold atmosphere of Siberia 

 to the inhabitants of Kamschatka and Corea. 



Norway and Lapland enjoy a more temperate 

 climate than any other country in the same lati- 

 tude. The Scotch fir there attains to a height 

 of sixty feet in latitude 70°; and at Tornea, at 

 the head of the gulf of Bothnia, in latitude 66°, 

 the birches are described by Von Buch as moff- 

 nificent. For this superiority of climate, these 

 countries are probably indebted to their peculiar 

 position between four seas, the Atlantic, the 

 Arctic ocean, the White sea, and the gulf of 

 Bothnia. A very curious difference has, how- 

 ever, been observed between the climate of Lap- 

 land, lying to the north of the gulf of Bothnia, 

 and that of Norway, which skirts the shore of 

 the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. These two 

 countries are separated by a chain of mountains 

 of considerable elevation, which fall abruptly 

 and precipitously towards the sea on the northern 

 and western sides, and descend with a gentle 

 and gradual slope towards the gulf on the other 

 side. Norway, exposed to the moist and tem- 

 perate atmosphere of the ocean, enjoys a singu- 

 larly mild winter, but receives little of the sun's 

 rays in summer; partly from the humidity and 

 mistiness of the air, partly from the declivity 

 of the land towards the north. Lapland has a 

 colder winter, but a warmer summer. And, ac- 

 cordingly, it is found that such plants as require 

 only a few weeks of warm weather to bring 

 them to maturity succeed in Lapland, though 

 they will not grow in Norway; while those which 

 are easily killed by a severe frost flourish better 

 in Norway than in Laplau(l. 



For the sake of distinction, that kind of 

 equable climate enjoyed by the countries border- 

 ing on the Atlantic, has been called the Island 

 Climate. It belongs, perhaps, still more strik- 

 ingly to Ireland and the west of Scotland, than 

 to Norway. The other sort of climate, where 

 both the summers are hotter, and the wintera 



