SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA. 



261 



coast, but the two former tribes actually 

 cover more ground than all the rest of the 

 vegetation. The cruciferous, or cross-like 

 tribe, afford one- seventh of the species, and 

 the compound flowers are nearly as nume- 

 rous. The shrubby plants that reach the 

 sea-coast are the common juniper, two 

 species of willow, the dwarf birch (betula 

 glandulosa), the common alder, the hippo- 

 phae, a gooseberry, the red bearberry 

 (arbutus uva ursi), the Labrador tea plant 

 (ledum palustre), the Lapland rose (rhodo- 

 dendron lapponicum), the bog whortleberry 

 (vacinium idiginosum), and the crawberry 

 (empetrum ?iigrum). The kidney-leaved 

 oxyria grows in great luxurience there, and 

 occasionally furnished us with an agreeable 

 addition to our meals, as it resembles the 

 garden sorrel in flavour, but is more juicy 

 and tender. It is eaten by the natives, and 

 must, as well as many of the cress-like 

 plants, prove an excellent corrective of the 

 gross, oily, rancid, and frequently putrid 

 meat, on which they subsist. The small 

 bulbs of the Alpine bistort (polygonum vivi- 



