166 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
the ground with its snowy tufts, which look like the silvery 
sprays of some magic plant. According to Linnzus, it 
thrives more luxuriantly than any other plant in the pine- 
forests of Lapland, the surface of the soil being carpeted 
with it for many miles in extent; and if the forests are 
accidentally burned to the ground, it quickly reappears, 
and grows with all its original vigour. 
‘When the ground is crusted with a hard and frozen 
snow, which prevents it from obtaining its usual food, the 
reindeer turns to another lichen, called rock-hair (Alectoria 
jubata), that grows in long bearded tufts on almost every 
tree. In winters of extreme rigour the Laplanders cut 
down whole forests of the largest trees, that their herds 
may browse freely on the tufts which clothe the higher 
branches. Hence it has been justly said that “the vast 
dreary pine-forests of Lapland possess a character which 
is peculiarly their own, and are perhaps more singular in 
the eyes of the traveller than any other feature in the 
landscapes of that remote and desolate region. This 
character they owe to the immense number of lichens 
with which they abound. The ground, instead of grass, is 
carpeted with dense tufts of the reindeer moss, white as a 
shower of new fallen snow ; while the trunks and branches 
of the trees are swollen far beyond their usual dimensions 
with huge, dusky, funereal branches of the rock-hair, hang- 
ing down in masses, exhaling a damp earthy smell, like 
an old cellar, or stretching from tree to tree in long 
festoons, waving with every breath of wind, and creating a 
perpetual melancholy sound.” : 
‘In the regions furthest north are found various species 
_of lichens belonging to the genera Gyrophora and Umbili- 
caria, and known in the records of Arctic travel as rock 
tripe, or tripe de roche; a name given to them in conse- 
quence of their blistered thallus, which bears a faint °° 
resemblance to the animal substance so called. They 
afford a coarse kind of food, and proved of the greatest 
service to the expeditions under Sir John Franklin ; though 
