208 REV. F, A. WALKER, D.D., B.L.8., EIC., 
Of plants that flourish in closest proximity to the hot 
springs and steam of the Geysir— 
Thymus serpyllum. Parnassia paiustris. 
The flowers seemed to be somewhat later at Thingvellir 
than Reykjavik, as, for example, Silene acaulis was still in 
full bloom at the former place when almost over at the latter. 
To an English botanist, the first thing that strikes one is not 
the number of Arctic species, but the great abundance of 
plants that are very rare and local in Britain, as Saxifraga 
ceespitosa, Lychnis alpima, Enigeron alpinum, &e. 
Mr. Jén Thoroddsen, resident at Reykjavik, possesses a 
very fine collection of Icelandic dried plants, and his know- 
ledge of this branch of natural history is only second to, if, 
indeed, it is not equal to, his acquaintance with the geology 
of his native land, as acquired by arduous travel and repeated 
surveys of deserts of lava and of ice. 
It is much to be desired that English tourists would gather 
specimens of plants, especially in out-of-the-way districts ; 
naturally, the Danish travellers do much, but still we ought 
to keep up the example set by Banks and Solander in 1772, 
whose plants are now at the British Museum. With respect 
to the warm springs and vegetation, Thoroddsen records 
finding Hydrocotyle vulgaris, 1., im a warm spring at Lau- 
earvatn by Andakilsa, the temperature of which was 48° 
cent., and Ophioglossum vulgatum at Gunnutiver by Reyk- 
janes, among sand at 27° “cent. Dr. Lindsay, in 1860, 
estimated the temperature of some springs at Langanes at 
180° Fahr., and in this he found two alge growing profusely 
see it must have been at least 130°. This is confirmed by 
Hooker in his Himalayan journals, where he records 
haus flowering plants growing with their roots in water of 
100°, and a conferva in sprivgs of 112°, and in others of 169°, 
near Burdran, Behar, India. While on this subject, ] may 
take the opportunity of mentioning that the flower stems of 
Prunella vulgaris (our common English Self-heal) are remark- 
able for their size and juxuriance on the brink of the hot 
springs at Laug, two miles distant from the capital, and 
where all the iaundry work of Reykjavik is performed. The 
island is without trees of any height, but birch woods, or 
what are so called (for what is known as the Icelandic forest 
inight more appropriately be denominated birch and willow 
ser tb) occur in some places. Horrebon states that the wood 
in Frujoskadalr was 43 miles long and $a mile wide at about 
the middle of the eighteenth century. Gliemann states that 
