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 
