NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 113 
of an acre, up on the sides of the mountains, are covered with 
barley ; and available spots on-the tiords, accessible only by some 
miles of hard rowing, are planted with oats. The grain is stacked 
in little heaps in the fields and a sort of rail fence is made to which - 
the hay is fastened to dry. In many places the hay has to be car- 
ried down the mountains on the peasants’ backs. I can’t imagine 
how they get hay enough to keep their cattle through the winter. 
Southern Norway, moreover, is more like New England than any 
country I have seen, only more mountainous. The houses are 
wooden and painted white, and there are rail fences. Cherries and 
a very few apples are the only fruits. The wild strawberries are 
delicious, but the natives prefer the molteberry whieh is quite in- 
sipid. It flourishes high*up in’ the mountains where only Saliw. 
glauca and Betula nana grow. I was surprised to fipd that the 
Abies excélsa, or Norway spruce, is not a mountain tree. It is not 
a handsome tree till you reach the valleys of southern Norway. 
Pinus sylvestris grows ‘alone on the higher mountains and is far 
from beautiful. The poverty of the forests in species is PONE: 
nothing but birches, alders, and ohe or two Conifers. ~ 
The herbaceous plants were more varied, and very attractive to 
_ me; possibly the’ more so because I had to puzzle them out with 
the only book I had, Hartmann’s Flora in Swedish, which I can’t 
read, but could guess at the botanical terms. Fortunately at the 
top of the’ Fille-field I met a botanist who spoke a little German. 
- Erica tetralix is to me the most beautiful plant in Norway. Digi- 
talis purpurea here grows on the edge of the glaciers and Gentiana 
nivalis by the roadside. Aconitum septentrionale abounds every- 
where. I was surprised to find that the hood of every flower, in a 
hundred or more I examined, had been perforated by some insect, 
which in this way sought the honey. 
I hoped to find some good algz, especially a Molde, but was 
unsuccessful. After two days’ contemplation of Fucus nodosus 
` and vesiculosus in various forms, I passed on to Bergen, the 
rainiest town- in Norway and, I believe, in the world. There the 
-= Water is warmest when the wind is north, owing to the Gulf 
. , and, whichever way the wind | a the odors | "r hor- 
rible. 
-As to the scenery, it is always Jee caine very grand. 
=~ The Romsdal is a very wild and gloomy pass about twenty miles 
a long, and perfectly ipg with mrar waterfalls and cascades. 
oS e ee VOL. VII. 
