THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANDS. 
25 
and determine its character. I regard them as arcto-tertiary species, of which many, at least, have 
formerly had a wider distrihiition than at i)resent. 
The other element consists of species which hy their present distribution are indicated as arctic- 
alpine. Several of these are to he regarded as among the characteristic plants of the present Arctic 
regions. 
'I’lio Commander Islands, with the other Aleutian Islands, compose a floral district which forms a 
transition chiefly Itetween three other districts, viz, the Manchu-Japanese, the Americo-Pacilic, and 
the Arctic district, although less closely related to the latter than to the other two, the northern 
outpost of which it may he regarded to rej)resent. 
Dr. Ernst Almquist has investigated the lichens of Bering Island and has pub- 
lished a very interesting account of his studies (Vega Exit. Vet. lakt., iv, 1887, pp. 
518-519, 521, 521-531), in which he gives an ingenious explanation of the curiously 
sculptured surface of the heath-like plant covering of the lower plateaus as due to a 
natural rotation of the plants composing it. 
The general character of the flora is very much like that of the treeless regions 
of Northern Europe, the most discrepant features being the splendid rhododendrons 
(R. Icamtschaticum and elirysanthum) and the beautiful dark-maroou-colored Saranna-lily 
{Fritillaria camtscliatceusis), the bulbs of which the natives gather for food in late 
summer. These plants indicate the close relatiou.ships to the flora of Kamchatka and 
the other Aleutian Islands. The xflants of both islands are in most cases identical, 
but the manner of their immigration very likely has caused the occurrence of some 
species in one island which are absent in the other. Thus I have from Copper Island 
the conspicuous yellow flowering Yiola hiflora (also found by me at Petrox)avdski), 
which I failed entirely to find on Bering Island, and which I could scarcely have 
overlooked. 
The islands are comxiletely destitute of trees, the few' sj)ecies of Salix, Fyrii.s, and 
Betula hardly ever rising al)Ove 6 to 8 feet, though I have a section of Betula 
eversmann i from Bering Island, with a diameter of 2 inches at the root. The Pyrus, 
in many i)laces, forms extensive, nearly imx)enetrable thickets. 
Tliere are two tolerably well defined belts of vegetation on the island, one a very 
luxuriant growth of higher j)lants in the lower valleys and plains, the other a heath- 
like formation above the former. 
The luxuriance of the vegetation in the lower belt, due to a rich soil and extreme 
moivSture, is marvelous. Some sjmcies familiar to me from boyhood I could hardly rec- 
ognize in the enormous siiecimens before me. Such jrlants as Anemone nareissijiora 
and Geranium erianthum sometimes reach a height of 3 feet, while in some i)articularly 
favored localities many acres of ground may be found covered with an almost imjjene- 
trable jungle of Archangelica, Heracleum Janatum, Artemisia tilesii, Picris japonica, 
Spirwa hamtschatica, Aconitum, Veratrum album, etc., often reaching a height of 5 to 
0 feet. The exuberance of the umbellifers, particularly near the coast, is very striking, 
as shown in the accomiianying photograph of Heracleum lanatum (x)l. 15a). Near the 
beach this belt shows the usual influence of the neighborhood of salt water in the 
liresence of such x)lauts as Lathyrus maritimus, Mertensia maritima and Ligusticum 
scoticum. 
The heath commences often quite abrui)tly above this belt, covering the surface 
of the beach terraces and the lower x)lateaus. Its i^resence does not dex»end so much 
uXiou the altitude as the character of the gnmnd, for where the coast escarpment is 
low the heath formation commences even at an altitude of 20 to 30 feet. The fuuda- 
