98 
FLORA OF AMUKR. 
1 ^ 
been minutely investigated, and the re¬ 
search has been rewarded by the discovery 
of no less than eight hundred distinct species 
of insects, from the beetle to the dragon-fly. 
Spiders, whose representatives now live in 
the trunks and amidst the roots of trees, are 
also found thus delicately preserved ; nor 
does the vegetable kingdom lack subjects 
in this fragrant museum, for the wood of 
the beech, ash, fir, poplar, pine, cypress, 
juniper, and other trees, has been recog¬ 
nized ; besides leaves of heath, ferns, and 
mosses. 
The flora of the amber consists of up¬ 
wards of forty-eight species, none of which 
are identical with species of similar plants 
now growing on the neighbouring land ; 
though this flora does bear a northern char¬ 
acter, and as a groupe is similar to that of 
the fir forests of Canada. 
The gum of the amber-fir must have 
been exceedingly abundant; but allowing 
V( 
I 
for the greatest itnagiiiable excess of this sub¬ 
stance, yet the forests whose gems have been 
thus thrown up by the waves of many suc¬ 
cessive centuries in undiminishecl quantities, 
