62 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



which has produced the existing flora by degrees as the 

 melting of the ice went on. This fact is finally established 

 by the circumstance that Scandinavia at least, in what 

 relates to plants of higher orders has scarcely one cer- 

 tainly distinct species which is entirely awanting in other 

 countries/ The statement I give is that of a careful and 

 accurate statistician resident in the country, with every 

 source of information open to him, and every facility for 

 forming a correct judgment at his command. 



Special attention has been given by Count Saporta, 

 and by the late Professor Heer, of Zurich, to the indica- 

 tions of the primary migration of plants in and from the 

 North of Europe preserved in fossil remains : the former 

 following up and expounding the views of the latter with 

 all due honour to him, respectfully taking the position of 

 a sympathetic approver and expositor of his views. 

 According to them, vegetation originated in the Arctic 

 Circle, spread southwards as the earth cooled, extending 

 to the tropics the hardier plants retained possession of 

 boral regions, when others disappeared under a reduced 

 temperature, and such alone it may be returning and 

 regaining possession of the ground subsequent to the wide 

 spread destruction of vegetation in the north in the glacial 

 period. These views, and facts upon which they are 

 based, I have detailed in a volume entitled Forest Lands 

 and Forestry of Northern Russia (pp. 192-235). 



