FLORA, 175 
above zero until the month of May. Then, under the 
influence of a more genial temperature, the breath of life 
passes into the slumbering, inert vegetation. Then the 
reddish shoots of the willows, the poplars, and the birches, 
hang out their long cottony catkins; a pleasant greenness 
spreads over copse and thicket; the dandelion, the bur- 
dock, and the saxifrages lift their heads in the shelter of 
the rocks; the sweet-brier fills the air with fragrance, and 
the gooseberry and the strawberry are put forth by a 
kindly nature ; while the valleys bloom and the hill-sides 
are glad with the beauty of the thuja, the larch, and the pine. 
‘On the southern margin of the wooded region, as in 
Sweden, Russia, and Siberia, extend immense forests, 
chiefly of coniferous trees. As we move towards the 
north, these forests dwindle into scattered woods and 
isolated coppices, composed chiefly of stunted poplars and 
dwarf birches and willows. The sub-alpine myrtle and a 
small creeping honeysuckle with rounded leaves are met 
with in favourable situations. Continuing our northerly 
progress, we wholly leave behind the arborescent species ; 
but the rocks and cliffs are bright with plants belonging 
to the families of the ranunculaces, saxifragacez, cruci- 
feree, and gramineew. To the dwarf firs and pigmy willows 
succeed a few scattered shrubs—such as the gooseberry, 
the strawberry, the raspberry, pseudo-mulberry (Rubus 
chamemorus)—indigenous to this region, and the Lapland 
oleander (Rhododendron laponicum.) 
‘Still advancing northward, we find, at the extreme 
limits of the mainland, some drabas (Cruciferae), potentillas 
(Rosaceae), burweeds and rushes (Cyperaceae), and lastly a 
great abundance of mosses and lichens. The commonest 
mosses are the Splechnum, which resembles small umbels ; 
and, in moist places, the Sphagnum, or bog-moss, whose 
successive accumulations, from a remote epoch, have formed 
with the detritus of the Cyperaceae, extensive areas of peat, 
which at a future day will perhaps be utilised for fuel.’* 
* The Arctic World: Its Plants, Animals, and Natural Phenomena. London: T. 
Nelson & Sons. 1876. ; 
