CHAPTER II. 



FLORA. 



SECTION 1. CHARACTERISTIC VEGETATION. 



WE have found that the general appearance of the country 

 is produced as much by its forests as by its general contour ; 

 but these, and the more lowly vegetation associated with 

 them, may be with advantage brought under consideration 

 apart, and the vegetation of the region throughout its 

 several districts will be found to be regulated greatly by 

 the climate, and more markedly so by the temperature, 

 only vegetables which can grow with little heat existing 

 and dominating where the prevailing temperature is one 

 adapted to their vegetation. 



By Mackenzie Wallace it is stated : ' If it were possible 

 to get a bird's-eye view of European Russia, the spectator 

 would perceive that the country is composed of two halves 

 widely differing from each other in character. The 

 northern half is a land of forest and morass, plentifully 

 supplied with water in the form of rivers, lakes, and 

 marshes, and broken up by numerous patches of cultiva- 

 tion. The southern half is, as it were, the other side of 

 the pattern an immense expanse of rich arable land, 

 broken up by occasional patches of sand or forest. The 

 imaginary undulating line separating these two regions 

 starts from the western frontier about the 50th parallel of 

 latitude, and runs in a north-easterly direction till it enters 

 the Ural Range at about 56 N. lat.' The northern half, 

 however, he represents in a map illustrative of vegetation 

 as divisible into two : the forest zone and the northern 



