426 BOTANICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



2 Umbelliferee (Pimpinella and Pastinaca), 2 Leguminosae (Arthrolobium), 

 6 Synantheraceae (Inula, 2 sp., Centaurea, 3 sp., and Jurined), 



The travels of A. Bravais and Gh. Martins (Bibliotheque 

 univers. de Geneve, 1845, vol. ii, pp. 147-73) traverse 

 the north of Scandinavia almost exactly in the same way 

 as that described by V. Buch in his celebrated work on 

 the extreme regions of the north, when he returned from 

 Alten-Fjord, in Finmark, to Tournea, on the Gulf of 

 Bothnia. But the French travellers believe that they 

 have measured the limits of vegetation under more favor- 

 able circumstances ; hence their results must find a place 

 here. They completed the difficult journey from the 6th 

 to the 26th of September, 1839 : remarking at the same 

 time, that partly on account of the water which they had 

 to pass over, partly on account of the swarms of gnats 

 met with in Lapland during the summer, which have to 

 be avoided, September is the only month fit for travelling. 



In the forests of Alten (70 N. lat.), the pines were 60' in height, the 

 birch on an average 45'. On the third day they passed over the upper 

 terrace of the plateau of Kjolen. Under the name of Nuppivara, it ascends 

 here to an elevation of only 600 metres ; but it is of the same conformation 

 as the far more elevated, undulating plateaux of the Langfjelde, which 

 abound in lakes. The bare soil of the rocks contains only a scanty under- 

 wood of Betula nana with Empetrum, and Andromeda tetragona, or Salix 

 Lapponum with Juniperus communis. On the south side, birch forests are again 

 next met with, but they do not extend above Kautokeino further than to 

 Karesuando (68 36') ; for from this point the whole country, as far as the 

 Gulf of Bothnia, is covered with a single continuous pine forest. 



Limits of vegetation measured : 



Northern slope of Kjolen, in the valley of Alten. 



Pinus sylvestris, dense forest 249 metres 



isolated dwarf . . . . . 500 



Betula pubescens, dense forest 380 



in the form of a stunted tree . . 432 



local . 534 



Southern slope of the Nuppivara. 



Belula pubescens 477 m., 480 m. 



(The figures in apposition denote the results of different measurements.) 

 Sorbus Aucuparia 4? 7 m. 



