ALT STEPPES. 3/0 



Artemisioe, and Centaurea;^ and of leguminous plants, chapter 

 (speciesof the Astralagus, Cytisus, and Caragana.) Crown -^^vill. 

 Imperials {Fritillaria riUhenica and F. meleagroides,) 

 C^^pripedise and tulips gladden the eye with their varied 

 and hright hues. 



" A contrast is presented to this charming vegetation Bambinnki 

 of the Asiatic plains by the dreary Salt Steppes, especially '' '^''^'^' 

 by that portion of the Barabinski Steppe which lies at the 

 base of the Altai Mountains, between Barnaul and the 

 Serpent Mountain, and by the country to the east of the 

 Caspian, Here the social Chenopodice, species of Salsola, 

 Atriplex, Salicorniae, and Halimocnemis crassifolia^ cover 

 the clayey soil with patches of verdure. Among the five 

 hundred phanerogamic species which Claus and Gobel Plants peou- 

 collected on the Steppes, Synantherese, Chenopodise, and s'teppes. ' 

 Cruciferse, were more numerous than the grasses ; the 

 latter constituting only one-eleventh of the whole, and 

 the two former one-seventh and one-ninth. In Germany, 

 owing to the alternation of hills and plains, the Gluma- 

 ceee (comprising the Graminese, Cyperacese, and Junca- 

 cese,) constitute one-seventh, the Synantherese (Compo- 

 sita;) one-eighth, and the Cruciferse one-eigliteenth of all 

 the German Phanerogamic species. In the most northern 

 part of the flat land of Siberia, the extreme limit of tree Siberia. 

 and shrub vegetation {Coniferce and Amentacece) is, ac- 

 cording to Admiral Wrangell's fine map, 67° 15' north 

 lat., in the districts contiguous to Behring's Straits, while 

 more to the west, towards the banks of the Lena, it is 

 71°, which is the parallel of the North Cape of Lapland. 

 The plains bordering on the Polar Sea are the domain of Plains bor- 

 Cryptogamic plants. They are called Tundra (Tuntur po^a"^sea. 

 in Finnish,) and are vast swampy districts, covered partly 

 with a thick mantle of Sj^hagnum palustre and other 

 Liverworts, and partly with a dry snowy-white carpet of 

 Cenomyce rangiferina (Reindeer-moss,) Stereocaulon pas- 

 chale, and other lichens. * These Tundraj' says Admiral 

 Wrangell, in his perilous expedition to the Islands of 

 New Siberia, so rich in fossil wood, 'accompanied me to 



