62 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 
which has produced the existing flora by degrees as the 
melting of the ice went on. This fact is finally established 
by the circumstance that Scandinavia—at least, in what 
relates to plants of higher orders—has scarcely one cer- 
tainly distinct species which is entirely awanting in other 
countries. The statement I give is that of a careful and 
accurate statistician resident in the country, with every 
source of information open to him, and every facility for 
forming a correct judgment at his command, 
Special attention has been given by Count Saporta, 
and by the late Professor Heer, of Zurich, to the indica- 
tions of the primary migration of plants in and from the 
North of Europe preserved in fossil remains: the former 
following up and expounding the views of the latter with 
all due honour to him, respectfully taking the position of 
a sympathetic approver and expositor of his views. 
According to them, vegetation originated in the Arctic 
Circle, spread southwards as the earth cooled, extending 
to the tropics—the hardier plants retained possession of 
boral regions, when others disappeared under a reduced 
temperature, and such alone it may be returning and 
regaining possession of the ground subsequent to the wide 
spread destruction of vegetation in the north in the glacial 
period. These views, aiid facts upon whith they are 
based, I have detailed in a volume entitled Forest Lands 
and Forestry of Northern Russia (pp. 192-235). 
