244 THE GEOGRAPHY 



we go southwards, and at first we see little low bushes of 

 Birches, then more compacted woods, into which the Pines 

 and other Coniferous trees assemble, and we at last find 

 ourselves in a second great zone of vegetation which is 

 characterized by the woods consisting almost exclusively 

 of Conifers, which thus impress a peculiar character upon 

 the Flora; Firs and Pines, Siberian Stone-Pines and 

 Larches, form great, widely-extended masses of forest; by 

 brooks and on damp soil, occur the Willow and the Alder. 

 On dry hills grow the Reindeer Lichen and Iceland Moss. 

 In the Cranberry, Cloud-berry,* and the Currant, Nature 

 gives spontaneously, though sparingly, food ; and a rich 

 Flora of variegated flowers serves for the decoration of the 

 zone, which stretches, in Scandinavia, to the already men- 

 tioned northern limit of the cultivation of Wheat, but in 

 Russia and Asia, almost to Kasan and Yakutzk ; we will call 

 it the zone of the Conifers. Even in the neighbourhood 

 of Drontheim, the culture of fruits begins, though 

 sparingly ; soon appears the sturdy Oak, called with rather 

 too much poetic licence " the German ;" in Schoonen, 

 Zealand, Scleswick and Holstein, flourish the first woods of 

 Beech. In about the latitude of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, 

 another tree joins company, which, in its bold picturesque 

 mode of branching, takes its stand beside the Oak 

 which in the beauty of its foliage, as well as the utility of 

 its fruit, it far surpasses namely, the noble Chest- 

 nut. The Pyrenees, the Alps and the Caucasus form 

 the southern limit of the zone, in the more eastern 

 portion of which the Lime and Elm contribute so abun- 

 dantly to the composition of the forests, that the former 

 even withstands the devastation which the Esthonians 



* Rubus Chamsemorus. 



