54 



KAMTSCHATKA. 



Chamisso, which, in all other parts of the country, takes the place of that species 

 as the principal forest tree. It has somewhat the habit of our oaks; curiously 

 twisted stems with bark full of rents, and more grey than white in colour ; leaves 



and flowers differing but slightly from those of Betula alba ^2 ^J. Of willows 



only two species are seen ; the first, here a mere shrub, is the common willow, 

 which throughout the country ornaments the banks of rivers and brooks, and is 

 probably identical with the one we are wont to see in Europe. The other, however, 

 emphatically belongs to this district; at least it exhibits nowhere else such a 



tall slender habit and extensive range as here ^12 | 13 -^j. On account of its 



habit one would be inclined to take it for a poplar ; but it is a genuine willow, 

 with narrow pointed leaves, on the upper side dark green, and of a silvery grey 

 below : its robust straight stem has a delicate bark of a dark greyish-brown colour, 

 and full of longitudinal rents ; its wood is hard, reddish-white, and much used for 

 fuel. This tree is here only known by the Eussian name of ee Wetlofnik ;" it is 

 again met with in the upper Kamtschatka districts, nearly as fine but more 

 isolated, and on the western rivers of the peninsula it assumes a much poorer, 

 almost crippled aspect, rendering it difficult to recognise again. These groves of 

 willows sufficiently indicate running streams in the background of the picture, and 

 the same is done still more forcibly by the alders growing there (15 | 16 m). 

 This alder, so much attached to the water, may perhaps not essentially differ from 

 the common European, the whorl-like arrangement of its branches and its dark 

 foliage may be only local peculiarities. But near it we behold a plant which 

 causes Kamtschatka, though only in the summer months, to differ from all other 

 countries. This is the tall Spiraea Kamtschatica (Schalameynik), which, always 

 growing gregariously, somewhat reminds us of the Panax horridum of the north- 

 west coast of America, and curiously enough represents that form of Avaliaceaz 

 physiognomically (15 n). It is a wonderfully quick-growing herb, which in a 

 few weeks attains ten feet in height, but disappears much quicker in the autumn, 

 as a single night's frost is sufficient to prostrate it. In July the summits of its 

 stems are decorated with large white corymbs of flowers, which afterwards assume 

 a greyish tinge. A very tall Heracleurn (H. dulcet), here called " SlatJcaja 

 Trawa " (i. e. sweet herb), flowers simultaneously and grows amongst the Schala- 

 meynik ^16 The stem of this plant has been used in Kamtschatka, from 



time immemorial, for making a kind of sugar, of which little crystals form on the 

 stem in drying. In Keller's time an inferior kind of brandy was with much 



