jea^ rasSs Stepffl ini 5E fl/ /*/*«. ■'¥*y /**• r Y department of ^ 5819 CZ8 P LIBRARY OF f j| Illinois Industrial University, jyj ciiA.nvE^^ic 3 -iNr, ill. ; 0^7“ Books are not to be taken from the Library Room, JJ) £3 The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN > l*. A*** &#** S5J E3i (Department of 1 / 5819 C2-8 P | $ LIBRARY OF I ? y Illinois Industrial University, [?j CHAMPAIGN, ILL. : C7* Books are not to be taken from the Library Room, J /Q Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/geographyofplantOOdaub 5, Henrietta Street, CoveNt Gaivde'nC^ ,,^ London, November lsf, 1855. p } Mr. REEVE’S LIST OP PUBLICA 1 . Sir Edward Belcher, C.B. The Last of the Arctic Voyages, During the Years 1852-4, in H.M.S. Assistance, under the command of Captain Sir E. Belcher, C.B., E.R.G.S.; with Notes on the Natural History, by Sir J. Richardson, Professor Owen, Thomas Bell, J. W. Salter, and Lovell Reeve. With numerous coloured plates, charts, and wood-engravings. Royal 8vo, 2 vols., price 36s. [Ready. Adam White, F.L.S. Popular History of Birds. With 20. coloured plates. By Adam White, F.L.S. Royal 16mo, price 10s. 6 d. {Ready. 3. Dr. Daubeny, F.R.S. Popular Geography of Plants ; Or, a Botanical Excursion round the World. By E. M. C. Edited by Charles Daubeny, M.D., E.R.S., Professor of Botany in the Dniversity of Oxford. With 20 tinted landscapes in chromo-lithography. Royal 16mo, price 10s. 6 d. [Ready. 4. Dr. Seemann, F.L.S. Popular History of the Palms. With 20 tinted landscapes in chromo -lithography. By Dr. Berthold Seemann, E.L.S. Royal 16mo, price 10s. 6d. [Just ready. 2 ME. EEEYE S LIST OE PUBLICATIONS. 5. T. C. Archer. A Series of Eight School Plant Diagrams, Illustrative of * First Steps to Economic Botany/ by T. C. Archer, Esq. Published for the Department of Science and Art, Marlborough House. Price 3s. 6 d. coloured, 2.?. plain, per Diagram. 6 . T. C. Archer. First Steps to Economic Botany ; A Description of the Botanical and Commercial Characters of the Chief Articles of Vegetable Origin used for Food, Clothing, Tanning, Dyeing, Building, Medicine, Perfumery, etc. For the use of Schools. By Thomas C. Archer. With 20 plates. Published for the Department of Science and xArt, Marlborough House. Royal 16mo, price 2s. 6 d. “An admirable and cheap little volume, abounding in good illustrations of the plants that afford articles of food or applicable to purposes of manufacture. This should be on the table of every family, and its contents familiar with all rising minds.” Atlas. “Asa cheap school book it is exceedingly well got up, and contains upwards of one hundred beautifully lithographed drawings, arranged on twenty plates ; they repre- sent various useful plants and their products.” Guardian. 7 . T. C. Archer. Popular Economic Botany ; Or, Description of the Botanical and Commercial Characters of the prin- cipal Articles of Vegetable Origin used for Food, Clothing, Tanning, Dyeing, Building, Medicine, Perfumery, etc. By Thomas C. Archer. With 20 coloured plates. Royal 16mo, price 10s. §d. “ Mr. Archer’ s volume, we are surprised to find, is the first popular book that has been devoted exclusively to the commercial products of the Vegetable Kingdom- -of that which constitutes nine-twelfths of the whole commerce in raw produc.’ Examiner. MR. REEVE'S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 3 8 . Miss Catlow. Popular Garden Botany ; Containing a Familiar and Technical Description of Hardy and Frame Plants, suitable for cultivation in the Garden. By Agnes Catlow. With 20 coloured plates by W. Fitch. Royal l6mo, price 10s. 6d. [Ready. 9. Thomas Moore, F.L.S. Popular History of British Ferns and the Allied Plants ; comprising the Club Mosses, Pepperworts, and Horsetails. By Thomas Moore, F.L.S. , Curator of the Botanic Garden, Chelsea. Second Edition. With 22 coloured plates by Fitch. Royal 16 mo, price 10s. §d. 10 . Miss Catlow. Popular Field Botany ; Containing a Familiar and Technical Description of the Plants most common to the British Isles, adapted to the study of either the Artificial or Natural System. By Agnes Catlow. Third Edition. In twelve chapters, each being the botanical lesson for the month. With 20 coloured plates. Royal 16mo, price 10s. 6d. 4 MR. REEYE S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 11 . Sir W. J. Hooker, F.R.S. Curtis s Botanical Magazine ; Comprising the Plants of the Royal Gardens of Kew, and of other Botanical Establishments in Great Britain, with suitable Descriptions. By Sir W. J. Hooker, F.L.S., Director of the Royal Gardens of Kew. In Numbers, each containing 6 coloured plates. Roval 8vo. Published Monthly. Price 3 s. 6 d. Vols. I. to XI., price 42 s. each. 12 . Sir W. J. Hooker, F.R.S. Journal of Botany and Kew Miscellany ; Containing Original Papers by eminent Botanists, the Botanical News of the Month, Communications from Botanical Travellers, Notices of New Books, etc. Edited by Sir W. J. Hooker, F.R.S. With plates. In Monthly Numbers, 8vo, price 2s. 13. Sir W. J. Hooker, F.R.S. leones Plantarum; Or, Figures, with brief descriptive Characters and Remarks, of new and rare Plants, selected from the Author’s Herbarium. By Sir W. J. Hooker, F.R.S. New series, Vol. V., with 100 plates. 8vo, price 31 according to the Synopsis . . . J A fev) Copies have been printed on large paper. 12 6 17 6 “ The drawings are beautifully executed by the author himself on stone, the dissec- tions carefully prepared, and the whole account of the species drawn up in such a way as cannot fail to be instructive, even to those who are well acquainted with the subject. The greater part of our more common Algae have never been illustrated in a manner agreeable to the present state of Algology,” Gardeners’ Chronicle. 8 MR. REEVE S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 22 . Professor Harvey, M.R.I.A. Nereis Australis ; Or, Illustrations of the Algse of the Southern Ocean. Being Figures and Descriptions of Marine Plants collected on the Shores of the Cape of Good Hope, the extra-tropical Australian Colonies, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Antarctic Regions. By Professor Harvey, M.D., M.R.I.A. Two Parts, each containing 25 coloured plates. Imperial 8vo, price JBl. Is. 23. J. Sanders. Treatise on the Culture of the Vine, As well under Glass as in the Open Air. By J. Sanders. With 9 plates. 8vo, price 5s. “We have examined, with no common interest, the work before us; for it will be strange indeed if a man who can act so skilfully as Mr. Sanders should be unable to offer advice of a corresponding value. We have not been disappointed. Mr. Sanders’s directions are as plain as words can make them, and, we will add, as judicious as his long experience had led us to expect.” Gardeners’ Chronicle. 24. Dr. Seemann, F.L.S. Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald, Under the command of Captain Kellett, R.N., C.B., during the Years 1845-51. By Dr. Berthold Seemann, F.L.S. Published under the authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. In Parts, each with 10 plates. Royal 4to, price 10s. each Part. MR. REEVE S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 9 25. Dr. Hooker, F.R.S. Flora of New Zealand. By Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D., F.R.S., etc. In 2 volumes With 130 Plates. Royal 4to, price £12. 12s. coloured, £8. 15s. plain. “ The work is written in good plain English, with a view to the conveniency of colo- nists, but without on that account being rendered in the smallest degree unscientific; quite the contrary. Let us add, that the beautiful execution of the work renders it a library-book, even for those who are not interested about natural history.” Gardeners’ Chronicle. 26. Dr. Hooker, F.R.S. Flora Antarctica ; Or, Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, in the Years 1839-43, under the command of Captain Sir J. C. Ross, F.R.S. By Dr. Hooker, F.R.S. Published under the au- thority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. With 200 plates. 2 vols. royal 4to, price £10. 15^. coloured; £7. 10s. plain. “ The descriptions of the plants in this work are carefully drawn up, and much inter- esting matter, critical, explanatory, and historical, is added in the form of notes. The drawings of the plants are admirably executed by Mr. Fitch ; and we know of no produc- tions from his pencil, or, in fact, any botanical illustrations at all, that are superior in faithful representation and botanical correctness.” Athen^um. 27. Dr. Hooker, F.R.S. Cryptogamia Antarctica ; Or, Cryptogamic Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Ships Erebus and Terror. Issued separately. With 72 plates. Royal 4to, price £4. 4 *' Meyen’s Botanical Geography (Miss Johnstone’s Translation). INTRODUCTION. 3 but the observations of botanical travellers are continually filling up the outline which was first sketched out some fifty years ago by Baron Alexander von Humboldt, who is con- sidered as the founder of the science. De Candolle and Schouw have mapped out the whole sur- face of the globe into botanical kingdoms ; and Meyen has divided it into eight botanical zones. The boundaries of the different and ever-varying forms of vegetation may thus be marked out more definitely than could possibly be done in the wider divisions of the five astronomical zones ; and a closer connection can thus be traced between the gradual changes in the appearance of vegetation, and the equally changeable varieties of temperature. Still the character of vegetation is affected by so many, and often counteracting influences, besides that of the tem- perature, such as the absence or presence of moisture, pre- vailing winds, and a suitable or unsuitable soil, that, after all, an approximation to the truth is all that can be attained. Some kind of framework is necessary for methodizing know- ledge, but Nature will not be tied down by too strict rules ; so that the flowers which are named as chiefly characteristic of one zone, are often found wandering into the next, and it is as impossible to assign a definite limit to them, as to mark- 4 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. where the hues of the rainbow melt into each other, or to fix the moment when day fades into twilight and twilight into night. One broad rule is nevertheless observed by vege- tation — of a gradual development from the lowest state in which it exists near the Poles, to the glorious perfection and luxuriance of form, colour, and organization which it shows at the Equator ; and to trace this will be an interesting task. But a horizontal division of the surface of the globe is not all that has been attempted. It is well known that in ascending high mountains, the temperature becomes gra- dually colder towards the snow -line. Meyen has deeply considered this subject, and gives it as the result of his own personal observations, that a vertical division of mountains may be made with respect to climate and vegetation, cor- responding exactly with the horizontal one of the surface of the globe into zones. Por example : — a mountain at or near the equator, which rises to the limit of perpetual snow, would exhibit every variety of climate, and consequently of vegetation, which is found from the equator to the poles, and might be divided into eight vertical regions, correspond- ing with the eight horizontal zones. In the same way, in whatever zone a mountain stands, the number of regions from the plain to the snow-line (supposing it to reach so Greenland INTRODUCTION. 5 high) would be the same as the number of zones from that in which it stands, to the pole. The eight zones (Plate I.) are as follows : — 1. The Equatorial Zone, including 15° of latitude on each side of the Equator. 2. The Tropical Zone, from 15° of latitude to the Tropics. 3. The Sub-Tropical zone, from the Tropics to 34° of latitude. 4. The Warmer Temperate Zone, from 34° to 45° of latitude. 5. The Colder Temperate Zone, from 45° to 58° of lati- tude. 6. The Sub- Arctic (and Sub- Antarctic) Zone, from 58° of latitude to the Arctic (and Antarctic) Circle. 7. The Arctic (and Antarctic) Zone, from the Arctic (and Antarctic) Circle to 7 2° of latitude. 8. The Polar Zone, including all the land above 72° of latitude. The corresponding Vertical Regions (Plate II.) into which, according to Meyen, mountains may be divided, are the following :*■ — * It will be remembered that, as a general rule, the mountains of the Equatorial Zone alone can exhibit all the eight regions. POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 1. The Region of Palms and Bananas, extending from the level of the sea to an altitude of 1900 feet; with a mean annual temperature of 81° Pahr. 2. The Region of the Tree-Perns and Pigs, from 1900 feet to 3600 and 3800 feet; mean temperature 74°. 3. The Region of Myrtles and Laurels, 3800 or 3900 feet to 5700 feet; mean temperature 68°. 4. The Region of Evergreen Trees, from about 5700 fee^ to above 7600 feet; mean temperature 63°. 5. The Region of Deciduous Trees, from 7600 feet to 9500 feet; mean temperature 58°. 6. The Region of Alietince (Pirs), from 9500 feet to 11,500 feet; mean temperature 52°. 7. The Region of Rhododendrons extends (and that of the plants which represent them in the New World — Be- jarice — ought to extend) from 11,400 feet to 13,300 feet; mean temperature 45°. 8. The Region of Alpine Plants, from the upper limit of bushes to the line of perpetual snow; mean temperature 38°. These divisions appear however (as Meyen himself allows) to be sometimes a little at variance with facts; but he thinks that more extensive observations will establish his theory. INTRODUCTION. 7 And now — to begin with the lowest forms of vegetation — let us investigate the Mora of the Polar Zone. We shall only have to attend to the northern one, as all the land which lies within this limit in the southern polar regions is entirely devoid of vegetation. Victoria Land, stretching from 7 0° to 7 9° south latitude, was discovered and explored by Sir James Ross, in 1841, and is the nearest point to the South Pole which has been reached. 8 CHAPTER I. THE POLAR ZONE. INCLUDING ALL TRACTS OP LAND ABOVE LAT. 72o. That we may prize at its full value the scanty vegetation of the Polar Zone, let us try to forget that such a thing as a tree, or even a shrub, exists ; for nothing of the kind is to be seen beyond 7 2° of latitude. Let us place ourselves there in fancy, and look round; and, that we may properly enjoy the six weeks* summer, let us first imagine the state of things through the long night of winter. All the great white bears tucked up to sleep out the cold in their hol- lowed beds of snow; — the 'cold round moon* looking steadily down on all that white, frozen world, never setting for fourteen days and nights together, and only hiding her face from her third to her first quarter, as if for sorrow that she could then be of so little use ; — but even then THE POLAR ZONE. 9 there is still the glorious aurora lighting up the heavens and darting bright rays through the air, to make some amends for the loss of sun and moon. Let us watch by this light that ambiguous-looking animal, with his canine head and his fox-like tail, and listen to his ambiguous voice too, between a dog-like bark and a fox- like yelp, — the Arctic Dog as he is called ;* even in the severity of winter he prowls for his prey. The Reindeer too braves the polar winter; and even in Spitzbergen we may see him hard at work, with his monstrous branching horns reaching backwards as far as his tail and forwards beyond his nose, digging through the deep, hardened snow, and turning it aside with his great, broad feet, in search of the Cenomyce rangiferina , — a Lichen which forms his winter fare, and which, in honour of him, is called Rein- deer Moss. But the long twilight steals on and on till towards the end of March, when the sun's face appears once more above the horizon ; his slanting rays have yet however so little power to warm, that till the middle of May the whole country is still locked up in ice. But now the ice begins to break up, and white bears and arctic dogs find themselves * Identical, as some suppose, with the silver-grey fox of North America. 10 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. starting on involuntary voyages upon floating islands of ice. The sun's rays call a world of beauty forth : they strike the icebergs, and every varied colour of the prism breaks forth — bright glowing crimson and sapphire blue — they all unite in silent praise of God. The air is filled with my- riads of shining icicles, sparkling like diamonds ; the very depths of the water glow with the tints of the beautiful mack- erel of those northern seas, green and azure and polished silver. The thermometer has risen in three weeks' time from 56° below zero to 40° above it. But the melting snow does not discover, as it does in our happier land, a green grass carpet beneath : — “ whole countries within this zone are, on account of the barren soil, perfectly destitute of vege- tation; and in others, the little, and, for the most part, exceedingly pretty plants, grow in turf-like patches, or at least socially." Short are the lives of the flowers : about the beginning of July they are in blossom, but not a human eye or heart is there to greet them ; and by the end of this month, or the beginning of August, the seed is ripe. *We shall find a great many old friends amongst them : in the first place, there are plenty of Crowfoots {Ranunculacece) : numbers VI 3JJZlVJ9Cbia£ vjr&j£ THE POLAR ZONE. 11 of them grow in Melville Island. - * Captain Parry's officers likewise found there a variety of Saxifrages, all of which may be met with on our own higher mountains, chiefly in Wales and Scotland. For instance. Purple Saxifrage [Saxi- fraga oppositifolia) , with its egg-shaped leaves and prostrate stem, and its purplish-red blossoms; the white-blossomed Drooping Bulbous Saxifrage (S. cernua) ; the Clustered Alpine Saxifrage (S. nivalis ), distinguished by the two pale green spots on its white petals; Alpine Brook Saxifrage (S. rivularis ), with a stem no more than two inches high, and a few small, white flowers; and the Tufted Alpine Saxifrage (S. ccespitosa :), with its white petals streaked with three green nerves. In Melville's Island too there are a considerable number of flowers belonging to the Composite Family. Some very pretty kinds of jEriophorum are found in these regions (Cotton Grass as it is called, though it is, strictly speaking, a Sedge) : some species of it grow in damp situa- tions in England. Thread, spun from some of our English Cotton Grass, was to be seen in the Great Exhibition of * The above list of plants, which Meyen has taken from Phipps and Scoresby, is here borrowed from him again, with the addition of the English names. 12 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. 1851 : there is something very elegant in the appearance of its shining, almost silk-like, white seed-down. Then there are numbers of true Grasses to be met with, though not, of course, clothing the country as ours do; and to judge of the rest by one specimen (Phippsia algida), they have a very starved look. Alpine Fox-tail Grass (Alopecurus al- jpinus) is another; it also grows on some of the highest mountains in Scotland. The Field Rush ( luzula campestris) is one of the plants which are met with in the Polar regions. There is also a very pretty plant in which a strong family likeness may be traced to our common Heaths, and which is a species of that family, called Andromeda tetragona , with imbricated leaves, and blossoms like little white cups, growing on rather long, hair-like stalks. The same resemblance may be seen too in another heath, called Pyrola , which is a somewhat larger plant than most that grow in that part of the world : it is a beautiful flower ; the little white blossoms look like a fairy peal of bells, with the clappers (the black tips of the pistil) just hanging out : we have species of both. Then there is a small marsh-growing plant, called Tillcea aquatica ; and the little Mouse-ear Chickweed ( Cerastium alpinum) of course will be there : it belongs to a hardy family ; some THE POLAR ZONE. 13 of its nearest relations have been found in blossom on the Austrian Alps, at the height of 9500 feet, no more than an inch high. Potentillas too are amongst the characteristic flowers of this zone; and the Mountain Avens {Dry as octopetala), with its large white flowers and feathery styles. There are the flowers too which some people call Bachelor's Button (. Lychnis dioica), and Bagged Bobin (A. Flos-cuculi) , be- longing to the tribe of Silenece . The order of plants called Pigworts {Scrophulariacece) is represented in the Polar zone by a flower (some pretty species of which we have) called Lousewort {Pedicular is) . There are species of the whole- some Cruciferous family too, such as Danish Scurvy-grass (i Cochlearia Danica ), not unlike Shepherd's Purse ( Cajpsella Bursa-pastoris) in its general character; a plant, too, re- lated to our Ladies' Smock ( Cardamine pratensis) called Cardamine bellidifolia ; and Alpine Whitlow- Grass {Dr aba aizoides ), of the same tribe. Those who have seen the flowers of this region with their own eyes seem to consider the Poppy {Papaver nudicaule) as the queen of them all. But the prettiest things of all — to judge by very perfect dried specimens — are the little Willows {Salix polaris and S. Jierbacea) ; they are exactly like Willow trees in minia- 14 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. ture, some of them six or seven inches high, others much shorter, and covered with little catkins. - * The plants which have hitherto been named are such as we have examples of at home in some species or another ; there are a few others peculiar to the Polar zone, almost all of them Grasses. There is a proportionate number of Cryptogamic plants ; of Lichens there are nineteen species; one of these, called Tripe de Roche, was for a long time the only food which could be procured by Pranklin, Richardson, and Back, during their daring scientific researches. Such is the vege- tation of the Polar zone. Amongst the obstacles which prevent a richer development, we must remember, in addi- tion to the temperature being through the greater part of * The Salix herbacea is also found on the sharp declivities of the Alps, under circumstances which exert a peculiar influence on the manner of its growth. It not unfrequently happens, that the soil on the steep mountain- sides, when moistened with rain, gives way, and covers up both the woody, creeping stems, and the leaves which grow in pairs at their extremities. From the axils of each separate pair of leaves, thus suddenly buried alive, two more diverging branches, each terminating in another pair of leaves, are then de- veloped, which force their way upwards to the air, through the earth which has been heaped upon the plant. As this process is repeated every time a fresh deposit of the soil is washed down by the rain, one plant, by thus multiplying itself in a geometrical ratio, soon covers a wide surface; the woody underground branches in this manner attaining an extraordinary length. THE POL AH ZONE. 15 the year below the freezing-point, the rocky, barren soil, and a want of water during the short summer. And now we may form some faint idea of what this Polar summer is like, if we imagine the sun shining on this scanty vegetation, almost as bright at midnight as at midday (so as to give the air no time to lose any of the heat it has re- ceived), till it sometimes even melts the tar in the seams of the ships which make their way there. When the sun shines from the north, it may be looked at as we look at the moon, with an undazzled eye ; and sometimes its rays are obscured for a time by thick and sudden fogs. Clouds of wild-fowl fill up the picture, darkening the air as a whole flock of them rises at once ; and not only wild-fowl, but a variety of other birds congregate in these regions in summer, to lay their eggs. Though there is neither tree nor shrub growing in this zone, the frequent appearance of Pine-trees, drifting about in the Arctic Ocean, used to be considered by sailors as a kind of mystery ; but it is supposed that these trees have at some time been torn up by land-floods, and driven into the sea by the many great rivers which flow through the northern parts of Eussia into this ocean. Prom the decayed state in which they are always found, there is reason to 16 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. think that, owing to the opposition of tides and winds, many years elapse before they arrive there. Something far more inexplicable was observed by Captain M'Clure in his late successful attempt to discover the North-west Passage, which shall be given in his own words ; it is impossible to read them without a feeling of surprise, when we remember the “ total absence of trees and shrubs above 7 2° of latitude,” which, in the present state of our globe, is laid down as a rule. “ An exceedingly old Esquimaux encampment was met with in making some inland excursions (apparently in Ba- ring's Island), and a most interesting discovery of a range of hills, composed of one entire mass of wood in every stage, from a petrifaction to a log fit for firewood; many large trees were amongst it, but, in endeavouring to exhume them, they were found too much decayed to stand removal ; the largest piece that we have been able to bring away being three feet ten inches in girth and seven feet in length. These were found at an elevation of three hundred feet above the beach, in latitude 74° 27' north: the beach is strewed with chips and small bits of wood, as are the water- courses and ravines as far as any person has walked inland, evidently washed down by the thaw from these ligneous hills.” This is one proof amongst others which exist, that THE POLAR ZONE. 17 the climate of the Polar regions must at some time have been warmer than it is at present. The beds of coal, for in- stance, which were discovered during Captain Parry's re- searches, both in Melville Island and in Jameson's Land, in Old Greenland, bear silent witness to the previous exist- ence of forests there ; coal-beds being now pronounced by geologists to be the remains of ancient forest timber in a mineralized state. c 18 CHAPTER II. THE ARCTIC (AND ANTARCTIC) ZONE. FROM LAT. 72° TO THE ARCTIC (AND ANTARCTIC) CIRCLE. A most unpromising field for a botanical excursion the countries in this zone may seem, at first sight, to present; our notions of them are perhaps, in most respects, rather indefinite, — about the extreme north of Siberia for instance. As regards Lapland indeed we know at least so much more, that its name cannot be mentioned without raising images in our minds of reindeer and reindeer-sledges, and diminutive people living almost in the dark for weeks together. In like manner, Greenland is associated in our thoughts with whale- fishing and bears, and we have a general idea of some tribes of Esquimaux that inhabit the northern coast of North America. We are therefore the more indebted to the patient labours THE ARCTIC ZONE. 19 of those who have endeavoured to throw any kind of light upon these remote and unattractive regions. Sir William Hooker has acquainted botanists with the character of ve- getation in the American portion of the Arctic Zone ; but the 'Flora of Lapland/ by Wahlenberg, was the first work “in which the botanical geography of a particular country has been worked out with extraordinary success.” Much attention seems to have been given to the flora of Lapland by northern botanists. We read of a tour being made for the express purpose of examining it as long ago as 1695, by a botanist named Rudbeck, at the command of Charles XI. ; unhappily all the copies of the first volume of his 'Campi Elysii/ except two, were destroyed in the terrible fire at Upsal in 1702. One of these has been lost; the other, the sole remaining copy, is in the Sherardian Library at the Botanic Gardens, Oxford. In 1782, Lin nseus, then a young man of about five-and-twenty, was appointed by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Upsal to make the tour of Lapland; and it is remarkable that he also lost many of the natural productions he had collected, by the upsetting of a boat. “The most eastern countries of the old continent which project into the Arctic Zone are unfortunately quite un- known;” and it is expected that the character of their ve- 20 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLAINTS, getation, whenever it is investigated, will be very different from those parts which have already been explored ; because the wind, which in the higher latitudes generally blows from the west, grows colder by travelling over great tracts of land ; so that the temperature of the more eastern coun- tries must be considerably lower than that of the western, which the wind reaches after passing over the warmer sea. One great feature which distinguishes this zone from the last, is the first appearance of trees ; — some almost reach North Cape, at the very extreme of the Scandinavian penin- sula. If we had to guess what these hardiest of all trees are, we should probably fix on Firs {Abies ) ; and we should have made a very intelligent guess, but a wrong one after all. The elegant, delicate-looking Birch ( Betula ) it is, with its light waving foliage and silvery bark, that stands foremost to face the cold; it is said moreover to be the most predominant of all the plants of this zone. It is the nature of its thick bark which enables the Birch thus to encounter the cold; for being a non-conductor of heat, none of the vital warmth of the tree is able to escape. It was not at all a bad guess about the Firs ; for, next to the Birch, some species of the Fir appear in the greatest num- bers. (Plate III.) There are even extensive forests of the THE ARCTIC ZONE. 21 Scotch Fir (Finns' sylvestris), and the stiff- looking Spruce Fir (Abies excelsa ) . The Spruce Fir extends as far as Alten, — to from 69° to 70° of latitude; and on the eastern side of Norway and Sweden the beautiful Pine reaches as far as 69°, and even above 70°. The only other plants of tree- like growth which venture beyond the Arctic Circle are the Aspen (Populus tremula) and the Mountain Ash (Sorbus Aucujoaria ) . As it is always interesting to trace the correspondence which exists between the particular food of all kinds of different wild animals, and the facilities for obtaining it which Providence has placed within the reach of the most helpless, it will be worth while just to observe here, that the appearance of trees is coincident with that of an animal (found in all the countries bordering on the Northern Ocean) which is indebted for his subsistence to the curious and crafty use he makes of them in securing his prey. This animal is called by the very disagreeable but well-deserved name of the Glutton. In figure he is very much like a badger, but he is about twice the size ; his legs were never made for running, and he is but an indifferent walker. It is clear then, when we learn that he preys on such animals as the reindeer, elk, hare, etc., — all so fleet of foot, — that 22 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS. he must supply the defect of his feet by the cunning of his head. He accordingly climbs into the trees, and having hidden himself, he watches his opportunity, till some un- fortunate victim passes below; he then darts down like an arrow upon it, and fixes so firmly on its body with his teeth « and claws, that the animal tries in vain to get rid of him by rubbing against the trees ; and he continues to gnaw the flesh and suck the blood till his wretched prey falls down and at last expires, after which he devours it at his ease. Having told over the short catalogue of trees, let us next see of what the brushwood consists; and it must be re- membered, that in acquainting ourselves with the plants of this zone in the Old World, we learn at the same time what they are in America ; for there is, we are told, “ an extra- ordinary accordance” between them. The brushwood is chiefly composed of that particularly handsome spreading shrub, the Juniper (Juniperus) ; of the Mountain Bramble (. Rufats Chamcemorus) ; Dwarf Cornel ( Cornus Suecica ), which has very small dark-purple flowers, growing in an umbel ; of a plant called Diapensia Lapponica y the stamens of which look like petals with the anthers fixed on the top ; and of Azalea procumbens.. They are all very short, as might be expected, and may all be found on heathy pas- THE ARCTIC ZONE. 23 tures or in mountainous situations in England, Wales, and Scotland. As for the little Azalea, it gives one a slight sensation of surprise on first seeing it, to discover how un- like it is to its highly-cultivated drawing-room relations; but indeed these last must own the connection, — for the structure is the same, — though it is a very humble little thing, growing close to the ground, with hard little dark green leaves, and small crimson blossoms : as however it grows in masses, it must have a considerable influence on the appearance of vegetation. The summers in this zone are no warmer than they are in the Polar Zone ; so that we shall meet again with many of the alpine plants, as they are called, which we found there, growing here at the level of the sea. Eor instance, near Kunnen, on the west coast of Norway, we find in the meadows (for the verdure of some of our own grasses is not quite wanting in the Arctic Zone) a species of Lych- nis ; the Purple Saxifrage [Saxifraga ojopositifolia) ; a kind of Potentilla (. Potentilla aljoestris ), which must surely be the same as the rare orange-yellow Potentilla sometimes found on our own mountains : and besides these, Alpine Meadow Rue ( Thalictrum aljjinum) ; a shrubby, heath -like plant (but a Monochlamyd), called Crowberry (Empetrum 24 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. nigrum ), which is not uncommon in shrubberies ; another small shrub, which does truly belong to the Heath tribe, called the Black Bearberry {Arbutus alpina ), with white flowers and a black berry ; — the following plants too, with the familiar names of Alpine Ladies* Mantle {Alchemilla alpina) ; Alpine Bleabane ( Erigeron alpinus) ; Alpine Milk- vetch {Astragalus alpimts), a thorny plant of the Legu- minous tribe, not unlike Gorse in its general character; and the small Alpine Gentian {Gentiana nivalis ), a pretty little flower which also grows in Scotland, and is not un- like Gentiana amarella in appearance. We also find a kind of Buckwheat ( Polygonum viviparum ) ; a very handsome flower of the Composite family, something like a Marigold, called Arnica Montana; a species of Mountain Avens {Dry as integrifolia) ; a grass called Alpine Soft Grass {Holcus al- pinus) ; two or three kinds of Lousewort (. Pedicularis ) ; and besides these, our common Ribwort Plantain ( Plantago lanceolata ) ; a species of Mouse-ear Chickweed {Cerastium viscosum) ; Mountain Sorrel {Oxyria reniformis) ; and Sea Arrow-grass {Triglochin maritimum ). We next find a plant of the Colchicum family {Tofieldia borealis) ; the flowers are greenish- white, but very small, growing in a cluster at the end of the long flower-stalk, which springs out of a bunch THE ARCTIC ZONE. 25 of grass-like leaves. There are likewise two or three species of the beautiful Willow-herb tribe (Ejoilobium ) . Near the sea-coast grow Sea Sandwort (Arenaria jpeplo- ides) ; another plant something like our BirdVfoot Trefoil ( Lotus siliquosus ) ; and one of Bagged BobhTs relations, called Sea Campion ( Silene maritima), with “ white petals and a purple calyx, beautifully reticulated and here too grows Danish Scurvy-grass ( Cochlearia Danica ) . In the open plains grows a small kind of Rhododendron {R. Lajpponicum) ; its structure shows it to be of the same family with the beautiful American shrub of that name, but there is about as much resemblance to it in its general ap- pearance as there is between the little Azalea before men- tioned and the Azaleas of the greenhouse : both are here associated together. In such situations too grow the Bed Whortleberry or Cowberry ( Vaccinium Vitis-idcea) ; the Cranberry or Marsh Whortleberry ( Vaccinium Oxy coccus) ; and three species of the heath-like Andromeda , one species of which (. A . tetragona) we met with in the Polar Zone, with little white cup-like flowers on long hair-like stalks. The manner in which this flower was first discovered by Linnseus himself in his Lapland tour, is too interesting to be omitted. “ Equally a stranger to the language and to 26 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. the manners of the Laplanders, he even traversed what is called the Lapland Desert, — a tract of territory destitute of villages, cultivation, or any conveniences, and inhabited only by a few straggling people. In this district he ascended a mountain called Wailevary, in speaking of which he has given us a pleasant relation of his finding a singular and beautiful new plant, Andromeda tetragona , when travelling within the Arctic Circle, with the sun in his view at mid- night, in search of a Lapland hut”* He travelled on foot, we are told, the whole way, from near the northern extremity of the Gulf of Bothnia to the shore of the Arctic Ocean, attended by two Laplanders, one his interpreter and the other his guide. That name of the ec Lapland Desert” helps out wonder- fully the picture of these regions. The names of a few heaths, and the plants which commonly grow intermixed with them, are soon read over ; but when the idea of these few species of plants has been taken in, it must be expanded till we see in imagination vast tracts of woodless heathland, forming a large proportion of all those countries which border on the Frozen Sea. It is doubtless under the covert of these heaths that our * Prom the Life of Linnaeus, by Dr. Pulteney. THE ARCTIC ZONE. 27 old acquaintance, the Silver-grey .Pox, or Arctic Dog (which also inhabits this zone), finds his favourite food, — a species of mouse called the Lemming. “He loves open coun- tries, and never frequents the woods and here, at certain times of the year, these foxes in vast troops together pursue their helpless prey, — a kind of hunt conducted on entirely different principles to those received in England, particu- larly where a fox is concerned. An extensive surface of dry and barren country, covered with an incredible number of lichens, forms another and very distinguishing feature of the Arctic Zone. In North America there are numbers of Gyrophora ; and in the Old World large tracts of land are clothed with the Reindeer Lichen, or Moss, as it is commonly called ( Cenomyce rangi - ferina ) ; it forms tc a matting over which it is very fatiguing to travel in summer, when the plants are dried up by the perpetual sunshine.” It is however chiefly in winter that the Reindeer Lichen forms the food of the reindeer. In appearance it is very much like the Iceland Moss we see in the chemists* shops ; it must likewise possess the same nutritive qualities, for it is a remarkable fact that “ though the reindeer eats nothing during the winter but great quantities of this moss, he always 28 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. fattens better, his skin is cleaner, and his hair finer than when he feeds upon the best herbage, at which time he makes a hideous appearance.” In the extreme north of Norway and Sweden, a clothing of a kind of moss ( Toly trichum ) prevails, of the most luxu- riant beauty ; and we find Captain McClure giving a corre- sponding description of an island lying in the same latitude on the north coast of America, — Baring's Island, discovered and taken possession of by him for Her Majesty. He says, “ Prom an elevation obtained of about five hundred feet, we had a fine view towards the interior, which was well clothed with moss, giving a verdant appearance to the ranges of hills that rose gradually to between 2000 and 3000 feet.” The natives on the coasts of those seas which Captain M'Clure explored, must be very different from those of the Arctic Region in the Old World, of whom we have been accustomed to hear dismal descriptions. He speaks of them as “ a kind and merry race “ a fine, intelligent race, cleanly, handsome, and well-grown;” and deeply regrets that hitherto so little has been done towards their conversion and civilization. 29 CHAPTER III. THE SUB-ARCTIC (AND SUB-ANTARCTIC) ZONE. FROM THE ARCTIC (AND ANTARCTIC) CIRCLE TO LAT. 58 °. A peculiar interest must be felt by all botanists in making acquaintance with the flopa of this zone, from the circum- stance of its including Sweden, the native country of Lin- naeus. Many of the plants we shall meet with, were those which first occupied his thoughts ; for, beginning as he did in the surest way to become great, by industriously using the opportunities which lay within his reach, the young Linnaeus first carefully studied the wild flowers of his own neighbourhood and those which grew in his father's garden. At no part of his life did his observations extend far beyond Northern Europe, being chiefly limited to his own country and Lapland, Denmark, and Holland : Germany appears to have been the most southern country he visited. 30 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. As no researches seem to have been made, as yet, in the North American portion of this zone, we will start from the most westerly land in the old continent — Iceland : the Faroe Islands may be spoken of at the same time, as their vegeta- tion is much the same as that of Iceland ; and it may be further remarked, that it “ agrees very closely ” with the coast flora of Norway. The absence of trees is a charac- teristic of all ; for though the Birch and the Alder ( Alnus ) grow in Iceland, they only attain the height of shrubs, and these are the nearest approach to trees to be seen in the island, together with the Juniper, which is the only conife- rous plant found there : Firs however grow in the Faroe Islands, and Willows are not wanting. The mountains in these islands are often covered with long mosses ; and both here and in Iceland- com is cultivated, though it does not always ripen. But Iceland was not always the treeless island it is now, nor, as there is reason to suppose, was the temperature always so low as at the present day; for there are facts which prove that there were once high Birch forests stand- ing where now the ground is changed into moors and bogs ; and not Birch-trees only, but Oaks probably as well; for Mackenzie, in his Travels in Iceland, speaks of seeing fossil THE SUB-ARCTIC ZONE. 31 wood there, found in the north-western part of the island, which he says “ seemed to be oak.” The specimen which he mentions was of considerable size, being made use of as a table in a farm-house. When submitted to fire, “ it burns with flame ;” but its nature is only incompletely understood at present, and “this substance is one of the interesting objects that remain to be investigated in this remarkable country.” There are also masses of mineralized wood of a very dif- ferent kind met with on the mountain of Drapuhlid, which is now almost entirely destitute of vegetation ; it has the appearance of charcoal, but is heavy when lifted, and, unlike that before mentioned, it burns without flame when exposed to heat, and afterwards takes the appearance of fresh wood, though the resemblance is in appearance only, its other pro- perties being very different. These are riddles for philoso- phers to read, and facts to be wondered at by those who are uninitiated in geological mysteries. But although the ground which was once covered with forests is now changed to moors and bogs, we must not imagine that there are no sights more cheering than these to be met with in Iceland. There are meadows there as green as ours ; and several kinds of Clover ( Trifolium ) grow 32 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. and blossom there as gaily. There are tracts of land co- vered with the common Heath (Erica), the common Juniper growing interspersed. The same plants grow in the stag- nant pools that grow in ours, and the same on their mar- gins as those we see in England ; such as Mare's-tail (Hip- pur is vulgaris), and the blue-flowered, long-leaved "Water Speedwell ( Veronica Anagallis) ; Marsh Cinquefoil (Coma- rum palustre), and the little Mudwort (Limosella), with its oar-shaped leaves. In the fields the flowers are identical with many of ours : for instance, Shepherd's Purse (Thlaspi (or Capsella) Bursa- pastoris) ; the pretty little Whitlow-grass (Braba verna) ; Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) ; Wild Thyme (Thymus Serpyl - lum) ; Ragged Robin (Lychnis Flos-cuculi) ; Corn Spurrey (Spergula arvensis), etc.; two or three kinds of Whortle- berry (Vaccinium), and the red Bearberry (Arbutus Uva - ursi) . The wild Pea (Pisum maritimum) grows on the sea- shore too, and is used in Iceland as an article of food. We must not forget one plant which is of great import- ance in Iceland, not only as an article of food, but as an ar- ticle of commerce, — the Lichen called Iceland Moss ( Cetra - ria Islandica) ; so great is the value of it to the Icelanders, that the season of gathering it is like a merry harvest-time. THE SUB-ARCTIC ZONE. 33 It has to go through a long process before it can be ren- dered sufficiently palatable to be used as food; it is first soaked in water till the bitterness is extracted, and then boiled with milk ; a kind of bread is also said to be pre- pared from it. We shall find, as we proceed to Norway, that there is a great dissimilarity in the climate of different parts of this zone. We are especially surprised, on reaching Christiania, to find Ash-trees ( Fraxinus excelsior ), Limes [Tilia Euro- jocea), and Elm-trees ( TJlmus campestris ) . And although the average temperature is between four and five degrees lower than that of London, there are “ apples and cherries, pears and apricots, growing in the gardens, and even grapes have been known to ripen in the open air.” This however is mentioned by Meyen as a most striking exception to the usual vegetation of these latitudes ; further east there is nothing to be found like it ; and it must be owned, that if the old rule, that “ The proof of the pudding is in the eat- ing,” is here applied, the fruits above named will scarcely stand the test, as they are of a very inferior nature. The Pine {Finns sylvestris) appears to be confined to the western coast of Norway; in the interior of the country it is replaced by the lofty and dark green Eirs, which, with D 34 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. the Aspen- tree (. Tojoulus tremula), the Service-tree ( Tyrns torminalis), and the Juniper, there compose the forests. Oaks ( Quercus ) and Beeches ( Fagus ) indeed begin to ap- pear towards the southern limit of this zone, but; scarcely ever above 60° latitude, and “they show little of the gran- deur and luxuriance they display in the thick forests of Germany and England.” The plants which grow in the Pine-forests on the west of Norway will be very interesting, from their names and forms being familiar to us at home. Let us only hope that whilst we are engrossed with them, we shall not fall in with any of the fierce brown bears, which no doubt consider them- selves lords of the manor there; they possibly might not approve of people poking about and botanizing, and might hug the breath out of us before we had time to beg pardon. A black bear, if we should chance to meet, we need not run away from ; he will most likely save us the trouble, by run- ning away from us instead ; for these black bears have a great dislike to society, and have no interested motives, like the brown bears, for wishing to cultivate the acquaintance, being for the most part strict vegetarians , living on roots and fruits, — acorns, for instance, when they can get them ; the only exception being an occasional feast of ants. THE SUB-AJRCTIC ZONE. 35 But let us take courage and plunge into the gloomy Pine- forest; we shall meet a friend to cheer us before we have taken many steps, — the beautiful wild Poxglove ( Digitalis purpurea). Venturing a little further on, we find the white English Stonecrop ( Sedurn Anglicum), with red spots on its pretty white blossoms; small upright St. JohnVwort {Hy- pericum pulc/irum), and the Earth Nut, or Pig Nut {Bunium Bulbocastanum) , which the black bears, no doubt, have an eye to. There is a flower here, too, which is sometimes found in the woods in England, but is not indigenous there, called Orange Hawkweed (. Ilieracium aurantiacum) ; there are little bushy Burnet Boses too {Rosa spinosissima) ; the common Heath {Erica cinerea), etc. Having now become accustomed to the solemnity of a forest, we shall feel no hesitation about making an excur- sion by-and-by in the forests of Siberia ; we will therefore bend our course eastward. Those who please may perform a part of the journey in a sledge, over one or two of the great frozen Swedish lakes ; but we would rather decline that method of travelling, as travellers are often put in consider- able danger on these occasions by the attendance of hungry wolves in their rear following their track across the ice. It will be worth while to pause a little on the shores of 36 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. the Baltic, for the sake of making acquaintance with a plant which is often found here under very curious circumstances ; this is Ledum jpalustre, one of the Heath family, but not in appearance at all like what we generally understand by a Heath. This plant is frequently found entirely encased in amber, which, as it oozes from the Pine-trees, is supposed gradually to encrust these plants when growing near them, and in this state they are found, — leaves, flowers, and all in a state of perfect preservation. The leaves are peculiar from the manner in which they are uniformly rolled under at the edges ; at the back they look like soft leather, of an orange-red colour. Por want of materials we must pass over the intervening space, and begin our promised excursion in the forests of Siberia, in that portion of them at least which has been explored,* where we shall find footsteps ready marked out for us. The trees which compose these forests are different kinds of Pines ; namely, the Cembran Pine ( Pinus Cembra) ; the Larch (P. Larix) ; and the Spruce Pir ( Abies excelsa) . Plane- trees (. Vlatanus orientalis ) ; the White Poplar ( Pojpulus alba) ; another variety of Poplar, called Pojmlus balsamica , * By Langsdorf, from whom Meyen takes his list of plants. THE SUB-ARCTIC ZONE. 37 and three different species of Birch ( Betula Alnus , B . nana, and B.fruticosa ). There are so many pretty little creatures leaping about the boughs, it is impossible not to stop and watch them for a little while ; the white squirrel of Siberia darting up the trees to its nest on the top, and the Siberian grey squirrel, with its beautiful long hair, quite silvery at the ends; — that curious animal too, the flying squirrel, dozing away the whole day on a bed of leaves ; he grows more brisk when twilight comes, though he is but a lazy fellow at best ; but an empty larder acts as a stimulant, and so with one spring, his skin expanded like wings between his fore and hind legs, and his bushy tail serving for a rud- der, he sails a distance of twenty-five or thirty feet from one tree to another, making a dainty supper on the buds and young shoots of the Pines and Birch-trees. At the foot of the trees gleams the delicate little white ermine, darting after mice like a cat. But there is yet another beautiful animal, the sable ; hiding away from the rays of the sun where the trees are thickest, as if he knew it would fade the beauty of his fur, he leaps perpetually with such agility from tree to tree, that he seems to be only doing it for amusement. But he has probably more utilitarian ends in view ; for some say, that 38 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. though he is partial to dining on hare, and such dainty dishes, in their season, in summer he prefers a light diet of the fruit of the Service-tree. He is making the most of his merry time ; for in winter, when the skin of the sable is handsomest, there is regular war declared against them by Eussia. - * It was indeed to be feared, if we once began to watch the ways of these little animals, that we should spend too much time upon them ; but we must remember the object for which we came into the forest, and attend to business. We no sooner cast our eyes on the ground than we find one or two kinds of little Ehododendrons ; and next come two familiar friends. Marsh Woundwort (S 'tachys palustris), and Hedge Woundwort ( Stachys sylvatica) ; we shall certainly think sometimes of the forests of Siberia when we meet them in our country walks, and that, we all know, will be often enough. Here too are the blue flowers of the com- * The business of hunting and shooting sables used to be carried on by the unhappy exiles of Siberia ; and when Russia has had no nobler prey in view, detachments of soldiers have been sometimes quartered in Siberia for the same purpose for several years together. “ A colonel from seven years 9 service in hunting sables may draw of clear profit four thousand crowns; the subalterns in proportion, and each soldier six or seven hundred.” — Rela- tions de la Muscovie , etc., quoted by Buff on. THE SUB-ARCTIC ZONE. 39 mon Skull-cap ( Scutellaria galericulata), growing side by side with the Woundworts, just as they do with us. The next flower, though not familiar to English eyes, we find to be a kind of Gentian, called Swertia perennis, with little blue blossoms. Then there are Great Burnet (Sangui- sorba officinalis), with purple spikes; and common Tansy ( Tanacetum vulgare) : such a merry-looking flower it is, with its bunches of blossoms like yellow buttons, and its leaves so beautifully cut. Next w r e find a flower which grows in England and Scotland, Chickweed Wintergreen (Trientalis Europcea) ; it is a rare and beautiful flower of the Primrose family ; the flowers are yellowish-white, and the stamens of course opposite the lobes of the corolla. We cannot get away from our English friends; and who would wish it? That handsome flower, the Great Wild Yalerian ( Valeriana officinalis), greets us next; here too are two of the Whortleberries again ( Vaccinium Vitis-idcea and V. uliginosum ). And now we find two most elegant and distinguished-looking flowers, which no one ever saw in England, though by the family likeness we can tell they are relations of the Wood Anemone ; these are Anemone narcissiflora and A. sylvestris ; but though some of the characters are the same as in our own species, the flowers 40 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS. in both are much larger, as large as those of the Evening Primrose, but white. A Siberian species of Clematis (Atragene alpina) grows also in these forests ; the flowers are generally blue, though occasionally white; — a white Fritillaria , if the petals were all extended, would give some idea of the size and appearance of the latter. The seed- down is extremely elegant, from the perfect regularity of its long white feathers. One or two kinds of Heath too grow here ( Andromeda polifolia ) , and the Red Bearberry (Arbutus Uva-ursi). And here is that flower that will be seen (and one cannot help being glad to see it), — Toad-flax (. Linaria ), almost like a yellow Snapdragon ; everybody must know it, it is so determined to poke its head out at the very top of every hedge it grows in. Its near but humble little rela- tion, the modest Eye-bright (. Euphrasia ), grows close by. Here is also our wayside Silver -weed or Goose-grass (. Votentilla anserina ), and one of the Bedstraws (Galium boreale ) . Another of the Primrose tribe comes next, Tufted Loose-strife (Lysimachia thyrsiflora), not growing like a Primrose, on the ground, but tall and erect, with clusters of little yellow flowers growing upon the sides of the stalk. The beautiful heath -like Pyrolce grow here too, some of which we met with in the Polar regions. THE SUB-ARCTIC ZONE. 41 Glancing at the map, we find we have reached the eastern limit of this zone, and conclude there is nothing more to be done, — at least in this hemisphere. But our labours are not yet at an end. It is true that scarcely any of Ivarnt- schatka lies in this zone, but its cold climate produces a flora of such a sub-arctic character, that, with the exception of the southern part, Meyen includes it in this region. The trees are nearly the same as those in the Siberian forests : — two or three different kinds of Birch ; the Larch, and other Pines ; the White Poplar, the Plane, a Willow {Salix pent - andra\ a smaller shrubby Willow [S. arenaria), and the common Juniper. There is also the Mountain Bramble {Rubus Chamcemorus ) ; and another called Ru b us Areticus ; the Bed Whortleberry ( Vaccinium Vitis-idaea) , and the Bog Whortleberry {V. uliginosum ) ; the common Barberry ( Ber - beris vulgaris ), the Bed Currant ( Ribes rubrum), the com- mon Crowberry ( Rmpetrum nigrum ), the Wild Cherry ( Rru - nus Padus ), the Mountain Ash ( Sorbus Aucuparia ), and the Bed Bearberry {Arbutus Uva-ursi ). It is an agreeable surprise, in this distant land, to meet with Wild Boses and Honeysuckles, and with another old favourite, the White Thorn, — {Rosa spinosissima and Rosa canina , Lonicera ccerulea and Crataegus Oxyacantha) . To 42 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. judge by dried specimens, the Honeysuckles are very much like ours, except that the flowers are considerably smaller. — Tall Umielliferce of some thirteen feet high have a re- markable influence on the character of the landscape in some of the level valleys on the western side of the penin- sula, particularly in autumn, from the dark red colour of the hollow stalks, and the very bright whitish-yellow of the root-leaves. Gigantic nettles too, nearly ten feet in height, grow together in great numbers in the western region, in many respects resembling our TJrtica urens , though without its stinging properties. (Plate IY.) The flora of the corresponding zone in the Southern Hemisphere will detain us but a short time (if flora that may be called, whose only claim to the title depends on one solitary Grass and a few Mosses and Lichens). This one Grass, which grows in the South Shetland Islands, seems to be the nearest approach to anything like a flower in the Sub-Antarctic Zone. When we remember that these islands lie between 61° and 64° south latitude, and compare the low state of vegetation which they show, with all the pretty little flowers we met with even in the Polar regions, the difference appears very unaccountable. Yet lower down in the scale of vegetation is Cockburn < {SpQ J.Cilraiik uel etjnh. UiuLclllferae , p. 42 THE SUB-ARCTIC ZONE. 43 Island, about 64° 12' south latitude, — due south of Cape Horn. Vegetation does in truth reach its last limit here, as nothing but Mosses and Lichens are to be seen. Cock- burn Island is a barren rock :* “ on approaching it, the cliffs above are seen to be belted with yellow, which, as it were, streams down to the ocean, among the rocky debris . This appearance was found to be entirely owing to the abundance of a species of Lichen ( lecanora miniata). Mosses grow in the soil which is harboured in the fissures of the rocks; they are excessively minute, the closest scrutiny being requisite to detect them ; and so hard frozen into the ground, that they could not be removed without a hammer. Three of the Mosses are likewise European, Tor- tula gracilis , T. lavipila, and Bryum argenteum , w 7 hich is also Arctic. The flora of Cockburn Island contains nine- teen species, all belonging to the Orders Mosses, Algse, and Lichens.” Over the solitude of this island reign unmo- lested, penguins and cormorants, and the beautiful white petrel, whose nest, consisting only of a few feathers, is built on the bare and precipitous cliffs. * Erom Sir James Ross’s Antarctic Voyages, 44 CHAPTER IY. THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. FROM 58 ° TO 45 ° LATITUDE. The face of most of the countries of the Old World lying in this zone is so greatly altered by long cultivation, that to get any idea of what they originally were, we must recol- lect what the state now is of that part of North America called the British Territories, which is included in this belt of land. Our best plan will be, first, to find our way, as well as we can, through the North American forests, and then, crossing the Atlantic, we shall be able to compare the natural state of vegetation, as it still exists in the New World, with its altered and cultivated appearance in the older countries of this hemisphere, — England, Prance, Ger- many, etc. The desolate steppes of the Don and the Volga also lie in this zone ; Caucasus, the Ural and Altai moun- THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 45 tains, and part of Chinese Tartary. It is an historical fact, that vast tracts of European countries which are now culti- vated and well populated were many thousand years ago covered with forests. Where the husbandman now drives his plough, the reindeer once ranged at will; an animal which from the description can be no other, is mentioned by Julius Csesar as existing in the forests of Germany; and fifteen hundred years after, a similar animal is spoken of by Gaston de Eoix as being found, in his day, in the French forests, even as far south as the Pyrenees. If there were reindeer, there were no doubt bears and wolves in num- bers, for they are all found in the forests of Canada at the present time ; and when we remember how far northward these wild animals have all retired, it conveys some idea of the gradual but complete alteration which human intellect and industry have effected. In consequence of the clearing of the forests, the climate, as well as the face of many parts of Europe, is greatly altered. The climate of Prance was once exactly what that of Canada is now ; the descriptions of the ice on the Seine some fifteen hundred years ago are precisely the same as those we hear in these days of the river of Quebec. As our object in North America will be to see nature in 46 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. its uncultivated state, we will not spend our time in that part of Canada which within the last fifty years has been thickly settled and cultivated ; it is as yet a mere border of the great primeval forests ; for, though seven hundred and fifty miles in length, the average depth of the tract of land hitherto redeemed is no more than forty miles. It will be better to begin our explorations on the western coast, where, as usual, w T e find a much warmer climate than on the eastern side of the continent. "With a large proportion of the genera we meet with we are familiar in some of their species, and many are even identical w r ith our own. As we travel inland, we find the bright yellow Meadow Crowfoot ( Ranunculus acrid), and two different kinds of Yeronica (V. serpyllifolia and V. AnagalUs) ; a little white-flowered Bedstraw too ( Galium loreale ) ; and a species of Plantain {Plant ago) ; Lousewort [Pedicularis] ; Bartsia , Britillaria , Potentilla , etc. ; and amongst these we are struck with some beautiful strangers. One, a kind of Iris, called Sisyrinchium ; and another be- longing to the Primrose tribe, not unlike a Cyclamen, called Bodecatheon . The forests are composed of colossal Pir-trees, amongst which are to be seen species of Alder, the Mountain Ash, THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 47 and the "White Thorn ; a white-flowered Bramble (. Uubus odoratus) forms the underwood. The plants which are men- tioned in company with the forest -trees, are, — first, that elegant little plant which was discovered by the daughter of Linnaeus, and is named after her, Linneea borealis , with pinkish-white blossoms ; it grows also in the Fir-woods of Scotland. There is Chickweed Wintergreen too {Trientalis ) , a kind of Currant, and a tall Azalea . In these forests we find, growing wild, a kind of Arum (< Calla ), and a Lailircea , which belongs to the Orobanche family ; with dingy-looking blossoms growing all the way up the stalk. It is a parasitical plant ; one species of it, L. sgua- maria , is often found in England growing upon the roots of trees : there is likewise a kind of "Willow. But the most characteristic plant seems to be a very remarkable climber called Panax horrida ; the epithet is well deserved, from the spiteful-looking prickles scattered over the surface of the very large leaves : “ it renders the forest so dense that it is difficult to penetrate it.” This plant belongs to the Ivy tribe ( Araliacece ) ; and the clusters of blossoms are very similar in appearance to those of the Ivy. There is also a species of an Orchidaceous plant called Cymbidium , a yellow flower with dark brown spots. 48 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS. The vegetation of the Kooky Mountains, some portion of which lies in this zone, is too vast and too difficult a sub- ject for these narrow limits.^ The one prevailing feature of that part of those grotesque mountains is a “comparative barrenness and desert-like appearance, some small parts of river-valleys only excepted. The most prevalent colours amongst the flowers are white and yellow ; the white colour- ing is occasioned by Achillea Millefolium ; the yellow by Calliopsis bicolor , with Helianthus tubceformis , Stanley a > divers Solidagines , and Ranunculi ” A plant, called Shep- herdia , resembling our Sea Buckthorn [JELippophae) , is very abundant in those districts ; and a striking feature is formed by the Yucca, “with its rich symmetrical, silvery foliage, and floribund scapes. The colour of the foliage passes through every shade, from deep dull green to silvery- white, the trees being chiefly Cupuliferce and Conferee , besides groves and thickets of Salicinece.” Passing on to the forests of Canada, we find they are of two distinct kinds; namely, boundless Pir-forests, and forests of deciduous trees. Amongst the latter, the Maple appears to predominate : they are composed, besides, of Beeches, * A detailed and interesting account of Geyer’s Journey across the Rocky Mountains, etc., is given in the ‘London Journal of Botany , 5 vols. iv. and v. THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 49 Elms, different species of Oak, and the White Birch, the Black and the White Ash, and other trees with less familiar names, such as Basswood, and the Butterwood tree, or Grey- branched Walnut (Juglans cinereo). Some of the latter grow to an enormous size ; they bear a great resemblance to the Sycamore, both in the wood and the manner of growth. Hickory-trees abound in the Canadian forests, which are also akin to the Walnut. The Black Cherry also grows wild there, and to a large size ; the trunk is sometimes more than ten feet in circumference, and measures fifty feet up to the first branch ; it is used extensively for furniture, and is little inferior to mahogany either in appearance or durability. As the danger of losing our way in these mighty forests is very great, it will be as well to mention a method of steer- ing through them which has been found of great use. “ If the forest consists of deciduous trees, the best way to find the points of the compass is to observe the moss on the trees, which grows more luxuriantly and in greater quan- tities on the north side. In Pine woods there is another guide, namely, the general inclination of the trees from the north-west.* The trees of these forests are described as * From ‘ Twenty-seven Years in Canada West,’ by Major Strickland ; from which also the above particulars of the Canadian forests have been gleaned. E 50 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. being generally large, massy, and vigorous ; the time when they appear in their greatest glory is the month of Septem- ber. The splendour of their autumn colours is something wonderful to an English eye. The leaves of the Sycamore and Maple show every hue from richest crimson and orange to deep warm shades of brown, mingled and beautifully contrasted with the palest shade of buff-colour and light green. The Sumach-tree too grows near, with its uniformly arranged leaves, dyed bright vermilion. The inhabitants of these forests are chiefly bears, wolves, foxes, tiger-cats, martens, hares, and squirrels, of which there are four different kinds; these industrious creatures hoard up large stores of provisions for winter in the holes of trees ; the business of “ putting up their preserves ” is most diligently performed by these good little housekeepers, as they carefully skin every beech-nut before they stow it away. The bears seem to be some of our old vegetarian friends, as they too feed on the beech-nuts, hickory and butter-nuts. The most formidable animals to encounter are the wolves, particularly when they are in a pack together. “ There is something very appalling in the wild unearthly din of a pack of Canadian wolves in full cry in the woods at night, hunting deer.” THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 51 The indigenous fruits of Canada are the Plum and the Grape ; but the Grapes are crude and sour in their present uncultivated state. “ Raspberries, good enough for dessert, grow more plentifully than blackberries do in England, about the snake-fences, and are delicious fruit.'” In the Huron Tract we hear of meadows producing enormous quantities of hay and pasture, and of fine fields of rice on some of the lake islands ; “ but the so-called wild rice of Canada is a totally different plant, namely, Zizania aqua - tica” There are openings in the forests sometimes of several acres in extent, dotted with clumps of Oak and Pine, which in spring are gay with wild flowers. Amongst the first to appear are the red, white, and blue Hepaticas, and white and yellow Violets ; and later in the season are seen Lo- belias, Lupines, and Tiger Lilies; the beautiful climbing plant called Maurandia grows wild here too, which is now well known in English gardens. It is well perhaps that we have no longer list of flowers to detail, though the few which have been mentioned can convey but a faint idea of the truth; but we have already spent too much time in North America, so that we cannot now visit Labrador; it may just be stated however, that the vegetation there is far behind 52 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLxlNTS. that of the western coast, just as Kamtschatka, on the east- ern coast of the Old Continent, shows an inferior vegeta- tion to that of the western coasts in the very same latitude. We must now sail on to more familiar scenes. We will not land in England; for every Englishman knows what the broad but varied features of vegetation are, which chiefly characterize the face of his own country : — the undulating- hills, some richly wooded with Beeches and Oaks, and others clothed with Heath and Gorse ; the bare but beau- tiful sea-side downs too, covered, and but just covered, with short grass, with no other feature to distract the eye as it watches the shadows of the passing clouds gliding over their quiet faces ; — the bleak, level heaths of some parts, contrast with the broad rich pastures of others, which are often re- lieved by clumps of s the Elm-tree — that most perfectly pleasing of all forms — and girdled round by Whitethorn hedges. The large proportion of cornfields, and the large tracts of exceedingly useful, but exceedingly ugly, flat turnip-fields; the Eir plantations, and the last remains of the old forests, to be found still in some parts; — these sights are too well known to every one for it to be necessary to spend the time in England ; we will therefore “ sail by the white cliffs of Britain” and land in Germany, taking THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 53 wliat we see there as a fair average specimen of the vege- tation of this zone in the Old World. Here also, as almost everywhere in this part of Europe, we find noble meadows and wide heaths, extensive pastures and cornfields, forming chief features of the vegetation. Another characteristic is the prevalence of shrubs, most of them with large and beautiful flowers ; such as the nume- rous Roses and different species of Bramble, and the Snow- ball Tree, or Guelder Rose ( Viburnum Ojoulus) . The forests form a very important feature of the German landscape,— both Pine-forests and forests of deciduous trees. The moun- tain forests are composed of Eirs and Beeches intermixed, more particularly of the Beech ( Vagus sylvatica) ; together with the Hornbeam ( Carpinus Betulus), which, next to the Beech, is the most prevalent tree. The Eirs are chiefly Abies excelsa , Pinus picea, and P. Pumilio , growing on the Alps at a height of more than 3000 feet; and higher still grows the Stone Pine ( Pinus Cernbra), even as high as 5000 feet and upwards. Woods of the Scotch Eir ( Pinus sylvestris ) characterize the whole of Northern Germany; the plains and sand-flats are almost everywhere enriched with it. The brushwood in these Eir- woods is composed of the common Heath ( Erica 54 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS. vulgaris ), and in boggy places of the Cross-leaved Heath (Erica Tetralix ). On the north-west only of Germany extensive woods of the Oak are met with, composed both of Quercus Roiur and Q. pedunculata. In Northern Germany, particularly in Schleswig-Holstein, the fields are everywhere enclosed by hedges ; the White- thorn (Crataegus Oxyacantha) and Privet (Ligustrum vul- gar e) here scent the air, mingled with Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and the common Hazel-nut (Corylus Avellana ). In Prussia, a very peculiar character is given to the great lakes by the thick forests of the reed called Arundo Phrag- mites, which grow round their margins ; it is the same reed the straw of which is often used in England for thatching. In the southern part of Germany the noble Spanish Chestnut (Castanea vesca) is one of the most striking fea- tures. In this part of Germany alone, woods of the Chest- nut tree are to be met with ; which elsewhere is only to be seen in gardens and vineyards. The Walnut-tree is begin- ning to be very much cultivated in Bohemia, where the fields may be often seen planted with fruit-trees. In most parts of Germany the fields are unenclosed; it is only in mountainous districts that we usually find them surrounded with a stone fence. THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 55 The banks of rivers and brooks are adorned with different kinds of Willow, and the common Alder ; the skirts of the woods are generally bordered by a line of White Birch. It would be impossible here to give more than an outline of the varied forms of vegetation which the mountain flora shows through all the different regions, from the meadows at the foot (made verdant often by the streams which wan- der through them) to the last traces of vegetation just below the snow-line. From the meadows we wander up through the thickets of Willow and Alder which cover the rising ground ; with Meadow-sweet [Spircea TJlmaria), and the Great Yellow Loosestrife ( Lysimacliia vulgaris ), and the handsome Purple Loosestrife ( Lythrum Salicaria ;), and the great wild Yalerian ( Valeriana officinalis) growing in- termixed. We have no time to pluck the wild Sage [Salvia verticillata ) and Geraniums growing by the pathway which leads up through the sweet-scented, thick-growing Privet [Ligustrum vulgare) to the woody heights covered with Pines [Finns picea ) and Beech-trees [Fagus sylvatica ), and bor- dered by thick bushes of the White Bose. But, whether we have time or not, we cannot but stop to wonder a little at the groups we meet with hereabouts of colossal Sycamores [Acer Fseudo-platanus) , from whose gi- 56 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS. gantic branches hang enormous beards of green and dark grey Lichens, — types, we may call them, of the giant trees in the primeval forests of the tropics, oppressed by the weight of their intertwining parasites. Long might we loiter on these woody heights; for here, in open spots, and in the mountain meadows too, the ground is covered with flowers, and beautiful parasitical plants attract us : of the Orobanche family we see whole tribes within the limit of a few steps. As we mount higher and higher, and reach the dark covert of the lofty Pines and Firs and Beech-trees, we see fewer and fewer of the sunshine-loving flowers, and walk upon a thick layer of twigs and fallen beech-leaves, sinking in at each step as if we were treading on moss. In damp places and by the side of brooks which wander through the forest we find a few flowers again : — Saxifrages ( Saxifraga rotvMdifolia ) , Pyrola uniflora , Gentians ( Gentiana ascle - joiadea ), a Cardamine we do not remember to have seen in England ( Cardamine trifolia), and one of the Forget-me- noFs relations, Rock Scorpion -grass ( Myosotis alpestris ) . The trees as we get higher up grow further apart, and become dwarfish and more like shrubs ; our prospect widens, and as the wood grows lighter and lighter, the ground is again covered with flowers of various kinds, with large THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 57 blossoms and of dazzling colours, growing together in turf- like patches. The flowers which grow in the greatest num- bers are the bright yellow Mountain Globe-flower ( Trollius Europueus), the dark purple Monk’s-hood ( Aconitum Na- pellus), a kind of Spurge {Euphorbia pilosa), Coralwort {Eentaria enneaphyllos) , a Valerian ( Valeriana tripteris), a Violet ( Viola hi flora), one or two kinds of Gentians {Gen- tiana Germanica and G. obtitsifolia) , Hawk weed {Hieraeium villosum ), and a kind of Groundsel {Senecio alpinus ). But we must mount to a higher region still before we reach the crowning beauty of the mountain flora, — the mingled garland of Rhododendrons, or Alpine Roses, as they are called — and shrubby, dark green Firs,* encircling the alpine meadows at the height of some six thousand feet. These two characteristic kinds of shrub — Rhododendron hirsutum and Pinus Pumilio — which grow here to the size of bushes, are almost impenetrable in some places ; so that, between them, they choke all other vegetation. Masses of the large blue Gentian {Gentiana acaulis) are another cha- racteristic of the “ Alpine region,” with from thirty to fifty blossoms in a cluster, set so close together that the finest blade of grass could scarcely make its way between. * Called in Germany “ Kmeholz. ,, 58 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. The curious may scramble higher if they will after the plants which, even in the “snow and glacier region” of some mountains, are scattered here and there, springing out of the clefts of the rock like starved and pitiful-looking plants, but nevertheless producing luxuriant blossoms; such, for instance, as the two kinds of Gentian ( Gentiana Bavarica and G. nivalis ), Valeriana Celtica , Juniperus nana , etc. Those who will may mount still higher, and bring down as a trophy some little Arctic plant, — some isolated, inch- high Mouse-ear ( Cerastium lat folium) , or Saxifrage (Saxi- fraga muscoides ), growing in solitude at some nine thousand five hundred feet above the world where mortals dwell. But the beauty of the Alpine region has satisfied us ; and not till we have filled our hands with Orchises and Anemones, and other flow r ers which grow in numbers on the Alpine meadow T s, can we consent to retrace our steps down the mountain.* The multitude of little herbaceous plants of Germany must be sought in botanical works ; here it is only possible to mention the two most predominant families, the Umbel- lifer a and Crucifer ce. We know too in this part of the * The above particulars of German vegetation have been gathered from the writings of Herr Carl Sachse, of Dresden. THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 59 Colder Temperate Zone how common different kinds of the Mint tribe are [Labiate), of the Crowfoots [Ranunculacece ) , and the Composite. A German flora is altogether filled with names of flowers familiar to our eyes, and vegetation shows the same character unchanged as far as the Yolga. Beyond this river we come to a totally different and less pleasing scene. The steppes of the Don Cossack country are “ local phenomena, and exhibit a vegetation quite pecu- liar to themselves.” — “ The undulating prairie, covered with a short dry grass, interspersed with quantities of wild Thyme and lilac Crocuses, stretches away inimitably, and looks like an ocean regaining its tranquillity after a three days* storm ; for miles we do not meet a soul.” Such is the impression on the unbotanical traveller. The lilac Crocuses** were most likely the Meadow Saffron [Colckicum ) , as the time when they were seen was in the autumn : the black Hen- bane (. Hyoscyamus niger ) is said to luxuriate along the banks of the Don. The vegetation on the sandy steppes is com- posed of grasses with rigid, rolled-up leaves, and of different kinds of Goosefoot (Ckenopodium) ; which, though they may want the attraction of showy flowers, have at least the merit of being always “ content to live, upon the least that Heaven can give.** 60 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. The strange salt steppes, which in summer often glitter as if covered with new-fallen snow, from the salt which lies on their surface, possess three plants which are considered peculiar to them, — Anabasis , Halocnemon , and Brachylepis , — all of them elegantly-shaped little plants, with clusters of very small blossoms, but with a look of poverty about them which plainly speaks of the soil on which they grow. The plants which prefer this kind of soil, and which we may therefore expect to find in company with those last men- tioned, are common Wormwood (. Artemisia Absinthium), Fleabane ( Inula Britannica ), Bird*s-foot Trefoil [Lotus corniculatus) , Thrift [Statice Tatarica), a kind of Saltwort [Salsola prostrata ), some species of the Liquorice plant ( Glycirrhiza) , and, besides many other little plants, that ele- gant shrub the Tamarisk [Tamarix Gallica ) . Further on and on we might still wander, if we had cou- rage, over the Tartarian steppes; but that word “desola- tion” is so connected with them in our thoughts, that our hearts are chilled when we think of encountering them; and we shrink from an undertaking which might expose us, houseless and defenceless (if by chance the winter overtook us there), to the terrors of a steppe storm ; during which “the clouds hang dense and gloomy over the barren waste, THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 61 and the cutting north wind drives over the surface, and the snow falls thick, till silvery streaks begin to rise continually from the plain, and the wind howls and blusters, and the air glistens with crystals of snow, and all is one dense, dim mass ; till at last, caught by a whirlwind, it rushes round in a circle, or rebounds from the elevated parts of the steppes, and the snow-wreaths succeed one another, circling violently and rapidly round, and confounding everything in painful dizziness.” But we feel conscious that we are only inventing excuses to avoid doing what we dislike ; it will be wiser to conquer our prejudices, and see whether ignorance has not exagge- rated our notion of the desolation of the steppes of Tartary. We find them, after all, not quite so desolate as we had anticipated ; poor hovels here and there offer a prospect of shelter ; for though these steppes are sparingly populated, they are not altogether without inhabitants ; and vegetation here has an interest of a peculiar kind. The eye is relieved sometimes, when weary of wandering over a level surface, by tracts of land covered with groups of low- growing Blackthorns and Hawthorns, Brambles, and wild Boses too. There are also Grasses, which supply pasture to the herds of cattle ; one very curious kind, called the Feather Grass 62 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. (St ip a pennata), is the most important amongst them, and very beautiful to look at. “ Directly after flowering it ex- pands its long, delicately-feathered awns (not unlike the tail of a bird of paradise) from the spike which rises high above the tuft of narrow, dry leaves.” The woody root- stem too is a peculiar feature in this grass, which, from the height to which it stands out of the ground, is a serious annoyance to the labourer in mowing. The awn, in the Stipa, is provided with a curious appa- ratus, not found in any other grass but the Oat : the part nearest the seed is twisted like a corkscrew, and looks and feels as hard as a delicately twined wire ; when the seed falls, this screw in all probability first worms its way into the ground, thus boring a hole for the entrance of the seed to which it is attached. The Stipa pennata was formerly said to grow in England, on the Westmoreland mountains, near Kendal; but as it cannot now be found, there is reason to fear that this was a mistake, or else that it has become extinct. Other tracts of land on these steppes possess a different character, being overgrown by rough, branching plants, with woody stems, which go by the general name of Burian amongst the Tartars. Being quite unfit for pasture, they THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 63 are still eminently useful in their way, as they are the only source from which fuel is supplied in these regions; and the husbandman who lamented in summer over the unpro- ductive land covered with these weeds, finds good reason in winter to retract his opinion, whilst he listens to them as they crackle under the boiling pot, and watches the cheerful flickering firelight on the walls of his cabin, which, but for them, had been cold and comfortless. As it not unfrequently happens in our domestic circles that in the absence of the elder brothers and sisters the useful qualities of the younger branches are called forth, which till then had passed unnoticed, — just so on the Tar- tarian steppes, such plants even as the little unnoticed Mil- foil {Achillea) do their best to supply the place of their vegetable brethren of a larger growth. It here attains several feet in height, and is not a little prized by the in- habitants, who value it as the best of all fuel. Wormwood too {Artemisia) is here found side by side with a gigantic Mullein {Verbascum), the “ Steppe-light,” as it is sometimes called. But the Thistles are one of the most distinguished fami- lies in these situations, where “ they acquire a size, a deve- lopment, and ramification which is really marvellous. Often 64 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS. do they stand like little trees around the humble earth- hovels of the country-people ; on favourable soil they often form extensive bush, even overtopping the horseman, who is as helpless in it as in a wood, since they intercept the sight and yet afford no trunk which might be climbed.” One of them, which the Russians call the “Leap in the Field,” and to which Germans have given the more poetical name of the “Wind Witch,” possesses characters of a most remarkable kind, which cannot be better described than in the words of Professor Schleiden, from whom many of the foregoing facts have also been collected. “ A poor Thistle-plant, it divides its strength in the for- mation of numerous dry, slender shoots, which spread out on all sides and are entangled with one another. More bitter than Wormwood, the cattle will not touch it, even in times of the most severe famine. The domes which it forms upon the turf are often three feet high and some- times from ten to fifteen in circumference, arched over with naked, delicate, thin branches. In the autumn, the stem of the plant rots off, and the globe of branches dries up into a ball, light as a feather, which is then driven through the air, by the autumnal winds, over the steppe. “Numbers of such balls often fly at once over the plain. THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 65 - with such rapidity that no horseman could overtake them ; now hopping with short, quick springs along the ground ; now whirling in great circles round each other, rolling on- ward in a spirit-like dance over . the turf ; now, caught by an eddy, rising suddenly a hundred feet into the air. Often one Wind Witch hooks on to another, twenty more join company, and the whole gigantic yet airy mass rolls away before the piping east wind. Surely man does not need a rocky abyss, a mine, or howling sea-storms to give him food for superstition.” A more terrible life is imparted to the steppe when a countryman “ cleans his farm,” that is, when he has set on fire the “Burian” upon it, with the remains of old straw and hay, now useless, on account of the new harvest, and full of mice and other vermin. When the dry grass of the steppe has caught, the fire creeps amongst it, like a serpent, with measured swiftness ; here it seizes a Burian-bush, and with a tremendous noise the blaze soars high toward heaven, crackling and hissing ; there, reaching a tract of flourishing Beather-grass, it rises in a light white flame, and darts with terrible activity over the waving field, devouring millions of delicate feathers in a few moments. Sometimes hemmed in between two roads, bare of vegetation, or between streams F 66 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS* of water, the flame draws itself together and almost disap- pears, then suddenly reaching a new dry surface of grass, gains new and fearful power, and spreads into a wide sea of smoke and fire, in which the columns of flame, whirling up higher and brighter than the rest, mark the unlucky situa- tions of human dwellings. Steppe fires of this kind often move about over a region for eight or ten days, “ crossing and diverging in directions which cannot be calculated on, following every direction of the breeze, and bidding defiance to the best-considered at- tempts at escape.” Such an aspect of nature is a thing we had not dreamt of ; and we are rewarded for the resolution with which we conquered our disinclination to explore these regions, by the images of wildness and grandeur which we have added to our store. For w ; ant of a guide we cannot now travel further in this hemisphere ; we have moreover something to employ us in the corresponding zone on the opposite side of the world. We have only one little memorandum to make about the Oak before we leave this part of the w r orld, which in this zone finds its eastern limit at about 75° east longitude, in latitude 55°, though in gardens it may be met with in com- pany with the Hazel-nut ( Corylus Avellana), as far to the THE COLDEH TEMPEHATE ZONE. 67 east as 80°, and in the 59th degree of latitude. We will take this memorandum with us, and all the rest we have been making in the Northern Hemisphere, that we may the better compare what we have seen, with the character of vegetation in the southern extremity of South America, in Tierra del Fuego, Staten Land, the Falkland Islands and others, which were visited and explored by Dr. Hooker some twelve years since, when he accompanied Sir James Ross on his Antarctic expedition, and of which he has published a most interesting and beautifully illustrated Flora. Only a few portions of the extremity of South America are known. The woods in some parts are described as “ so thick that the sun's rays cannot penetrate them; but the trees which compose them never grow very high, though their trunks are of a considerable thickness at the base ;'' they are chiefly two kinds of Beech, and an evergreen tree called Brings Winteri , or Winter's-bark. On the western coast, the ground in these forests is covered with moss. It is only in the middle part of the Straits of Magellan that vegetation appears to be luxuriant ; there also the prin- cipal trees are the Beech (of which one species, Fagus betit- loides , is an evergreen) and the Winter's -bark. Some of the Beeches grow to a great thickness. The evergreen trees 68 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. cover the land, and the mountains to the height of two thou- sand feet, with perpetual verdure, “ which presents an ex- tremely remarkable spectacle, particularly where the glaciers descend to the sea” The bright flowers of the scarlet Fuchsia, which is a native here, adorn the gloomy Beech- forests ; and both the Fuchsia and Veronica grow to such a size, that the stems are sometimes six or seven inches in diameter. On the western side of the Straits, “ vegetation is very stunted,” and on the eastern side there is a total absence of trees ; these differences are in some measure accounted for by a great variety in the soil. Those who have visited this coast in summer, describe the craggy hills, which are of an amazing height, as completely covered with snow; whilst the plains were adorned at the same time with flowers equal in fragrance and beauty to those we see in the gardens of England. The woods are full of parrots and other beautiful birds; and in other seasons and other loca- lities there seems to be an equal abundance of less beautiful, but far more useful, ducks and geese. It is interesting to compare the different accounts which have been given of that much-decried land, Tierra del Euego, which lies, it will be remembered, in the corresponding lati- tude with that of the southern part of England. This THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 69 island, and the adjacent one of Staten Land; seem hardly so bad as Lord Anson described them ; or rather; the ap- pearance of the country was no doubt very different as he saw it; in autumn; to that which it showed in the middle of summer; when the two naturalists; Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander; visited it (in the year 1769); in company with Captain Cook. Lord Anson speaks of “ high craggy hills towering above each other, mostly covered with snow ;” of “ deep horrid valleys ; some few scattered trees ; no plains ; nor one cheerful green through all the dismal prospect and he considered the inhabitants of that “ land of desola- tion” to be “ the most miserable of human beings.” In Staten Land, the “ horror and wildness” with which Lord Anson depicted it “ were not discernible by Banks ;” on the contrary, the land was neither destitute of wood or verdure, nor covered with snow. Tierra del Euego also is described by Captain Cook as having “the sea-coast and the sides of the hills clothed with an agreeable verdure, with a brook at the foot of almost every hill.” This account is confirmed by Dr. Hooker, who speaks of the “wild wood- land scenery, secluded bays, precipitous mountains, and in- teresting vegetation of Tierra del Buego ;” though something of the “ horror and wildness” is implied in the words which 70 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OE PLANTS. follow, when he says that “terrible as the war of the ele- ments there is, they (himself and his fellow- passengers) were in some measure sheltered from its fury/' 7 Banks and Solander had nevertheless sad experience of the severity of the. climate, even in summer. Having one day spent some hours on shore, and collected more than a hundred unknown plants, Sir Joseph Banks next formed a party for the purpose of making an excursion further into the country; upon which occasion he seems to have done things which no one but a botanist would have dreamt of undertaking. The least extraordinary performance was to walk across a bog thickly covered with closely interwoven bushes of Birch ; “ however, as they were not above three feet high, they stepped over them,” between each of these steps going into the bog up to their ankles ; “ but they found a great variety of plants that gratified their curiosity and repaid their toil.” Snow however came on, and be- numbing cold and stupor, and the night was passed in an unfrequented wood. Surely this was the saddest botanical excursion that ever was made; for alas, when morning dawned, it found two poor Negroes who had been of the party, dead on the ground, in spite of every effort which had been made to save them. THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 71 Besides the bogs or wet moors covered with low Birch- trees, like that mentioned above, another feature of the country is formed by fertile plains, adorned with beautiful turf, the base of the mountains being clothed with wood. The two Beech-trees and the Winter Vbark “ occupy exactly the same positions which the Birch, Oak, and Mountain Ash do in Scotland.” One very interesting and remarkable feature of the ve- getation in Tierra del Buego, as well as in South Chili, is formed by a parasitical plant, called the Myzoclendron , of the same family as our Misletoe ( Lorantfiacece ), which is very abundant on various species of Beech. One species, M. joundulatum, is spoken of by Dr. Hooker as a conspi- cuous object, even from a considerable distance, from its yellow hue, which “ may be recognized when coasting along the shores of Buegia, from its contrasting so strongly with the otherwise lurid colour of the dusky forests. It grows indifferently upon the evergreen, or deciduous-leaved, Beech.” One chief peculiarity of this plant consists in the feathery- appendage attached to the seed, which performs a similar function to the gluten with which the seed of the Misletoe is provided, though in a different way; that, namely, of attaching the seed to the tree on which it is to grow. 72 POPULAE GEOGEAPHY OP PLANTS, “ Several of the ripened seeds, still enclosed in their peri- carps,* are generally detached together from the parent plant ; they adhere by their viscid filaments, and are carried by the birds, winds, or other natural causes, from one tree to another, where they may often be seen hanging entangled amongst the leaves and twigs. The grain is placed almost in contact with the stem ; it is immaterial to which sur- face.” As described from one species in which Dr. Hooker closely watched the process, that part of the seed from which the future stem of the plant is to be developed becomes elongated when the seed springs, and pushes away, by this process, the old disc and style, which fall away ; “ the radi- cle always escapes at this point and protrudes beyond the pericarp, to which the embryo remains attached until the parasite has gained a firm lodgment on the tree. This union however is anything but a happy one in its results to either party ; for though “ a branch attacked by the Myzodendron suffers no apparent change below their point of union, all beyond it, being insufficiently nourished, does not increase in proportion, and after a time dies from atrophy;” and the parasite, having thus injured the sup- porting branch on which it grew, itself dies away, after * Seed-vessels. THE COLDER, TEMPERATE ZONE. 73 “ having finally arrived at its full growth ; a time probably coincident with, if not dependent upon, the period when the Beech cannot supply it with sufficient nutriment.” The list of flowers is composed of such familiar names as Crowfoot ( Ranunculus ), Marsh Marigold ( GaltJid ), Barberry (Berheris), Ladies'-smock (Cardamine), Whitlow-grass (Bra- ha), Shepherd Vpurse (Thlasjoi), Lychnis (Silene), Stitch- wort (Stellaria), Mouse-ear (Cerastium) , Wood-sorrel ( Ox - alls), Yiolet (Viola), Geranium, Botentilla, Bramble (Ru- hus), Gentian (Gentiana) , Skull-cap (Saitellaria) , Butter- wort (Pinguicula) , Groundsel (Senecio), Hawkweed (Hiera- cium), Dandelion (Taraxacum) , Pimpernel (Anagattis), etc. On reading such a list of thoroughly English species, the conclusion seems forced on us that similar latitudes produce a similar vegetation in the opposite hemispheres; but we are told by Dr. Hooker, that c< experience has proved the fallacy of such a conclusion,” and that, on the contrary ; “ the flora of Tierra del Euego possesses an additional and peculiar charm in its being the only region south of the tropics where the botany of our temperate zone is, as it were, repeated to a very considerable extent.” There is an island called Hermite Island, situated close to Cape Horn, to which a particular interest belongs, as i 74 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. being the highest southern latitude in which any flowers are to be met with, with the exception of the single Grass before mentioned in the south Shetland Islands. These flowers belong chiefly to the families of Umbelliferee and Composites , Heaths (Ericece), and Crowberries ( Empetrece ). The deciduous Beech ( Fagus Antarctica) grows here too ; but these Beeches, like their prototypes the little Willows in the Polar regions, are only trees in miniature, about three inches in length, and growing in a prostrate posture, as if they were crouching on the ground to shelter themselves from the rough gales and snow-storms. We must however take our leave of these wild regions, and our last look at the little people on the shore, — none of them much above five feet, with flat faces, and low fore- heads smeared over with red paint ; with black hair hang- ing straight down, and little black eyes peering out from under it, — we must leave them in this bitter climate to wander in the woods, almost without clothing, and build their miserable hovels ; and little as they, as yet, are in- debted to us, we Christians may carry away a lesson of con- tent from them, who, though they are called “ the outcasts of human nature,” are nevertheless described as being “ cheerful and good-tempered.” THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 75 Having had time to finish these reflections on oar voyage to the Falkland Islands, we look out as we near them to see of what the general features of the landscape consist. Look where we may, we can see no trees ; not a single tree is to be seen in these islands ; the nearest approach to them are thickets of bushes from four to five feet high, which consist of Brambles (. Rubus ), Heaths ( Arbutus and Andro- meda), and the Crowberry ( Fmpetrum ). If there were but trees, the country would not be unlike some parts of Eng- land, from the extensive meadows and moors which charac- terize it ; the grasses which cover the meadows are the same as ours, such as different kinds of Agrostis , Air a, and Fes - tuca; and growing with them are Bushes, Leeds, and Sedges, amongst which is the Club-rush (Scirpus). Though there are many South American plants to be met with, we also recognize many familiar species. In damp and moory places we meet with a plant very like our pretty Moneywort, but with smaller blossoms, — Lysimacliia repens, and two kinds of Marsh Marigold (Caltha), though these are also smaller than ours ; there is the common little Chickweed too {Sagina procumbens) , and a variety of Composite flowers. A most singular plant, called Balsam-bog ( Bolax glebaria), here attracts our particular attention; it would convey no 76 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. idea of it to say simply that it belongs to the Umbelliferous family, as (to an unobservant eye) it has not the slightest resemblance to any of that family with which we are ac- quainted. This, and a kind of grass called Tussock-grass, seem to be the chief objects of interest in the vegetation of the Falkland Islands. The following description of these plants is borrowed from Dr. Hooker. “ Grasses and the Balsam-bog ( Bolax glebaria ) form the chief and indeed the only conspicuous botanical feature in the landscape, covering the hills, plains, peat-bogs, and coasts through the whole year. The Tussock-grass grows in a very peculiar manner : the roots of these plants project above ground ; the roots of each plant forming a hillock of some six feet high and four or five in diameter. From the top of this hillock springs the copious grassy foliage, with blades full six feet in length, drooping on all sides ; and as there is a space of some few feet between each plant, the tips of these Grasses meet each other so as to overarch the space between.” A Tussock-bog, as it is called, is “like a forest of miniature Palms, and forms a complete labyrinth ; leaves and sky are all that can be seen overhead, and these curious roots and decayed vegetable matter on both sides, before and behind ; except now and then when a penguin IPlsch V lit IMSI THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 77 peeps forth from its hole, or the traveller stumbles over a huge sea-lion stretched along the ground, blocking up his path.” There is perhaps “ no Grass likely to yield nearly so great an amount of nourishment as the Tussock, and cattle are excessively fond of it.” There are specimens of it in the Royal Gardens of Kew, but it grows so slowly that it will be long (if ever we do) before we see fields of Tussock-grass in England. In the Shetland and Orkney Islands however, where it has been introduced, it thrives well, and seems to have found a congenial home. “ Bogs and damp woods in Britain very frequently pro- duce a Sedge ( Carex jpaniculata ) , whose mode of growth is, on a small scale, identical with that of the Tussock-grass, and to which the name of Tussock is applied. In South Wales they may be met with two or three feet above the. ground ; and if they w T ere higher, larger, and placed close together, the general resemblance would be complete.” The Balsam-bog (the other characteristic plant) is thus described: (Plate Y.) — “At first its appearance is that of a little herb, densely tufted, its stems radiating on every side, all of the same length, and covered with leaves, so that it takes the shape of a ball ; when still larger, it assumes the shape of a hemispherical cushion rising out of the 78 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. ground, of a pale yellow-green colour and very firm sub- stance; the little branches being so densely and firmly packed together, that they present an even surface of such hardness and compactness that the knuckles may be broken against the mass. These hummocks of living vegetable matter often attain a height of four feet, and an equal or much greater diameter. They are called Balsam-bogs or Misery-balls, because they generally indicate a barren soil.” In the same situations where the Balsam-bog grows (on the sides of damp mountains) there is also found in the greatest profusion a very curious Bern, Lomaria Magel - lanica ; it might well be called the Proteus of Perns ; for though the fructification has the same character in all the varieties, their appearance differs so greatly that scarcely any general likeness can be traced; sometimes the fronds are arranged in as orderly a manner as they are in our common Brake, whilst at others they assume some grotesque form ; the fertile frond occasionally growing in the shape of long brown tails. There is still much that is very interesting in this zone, which must be crowded into a short space, namely, the cha- racter of vegetation in the Auckland Isles and Campbell Island. In the Auckland Isles there are no mountains so THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 79 high as to reach the limit of perpetual snow, and but few rocks or precipices. “The whole land seems covered with vegetation. A low forest skirts all the shores, succeeded by a broad belt of brushwood, above which, to the summit of the hills, extend grassy slopes.” The trees of the forest are “ stag-headed, gnarled, and stunted by the violence of the gales beneath their shelter there is an undergrowth of bright green feathery Ferns and several gay-llowered herbs. Even if there were space, it would be useless to repeat the names of trees whose forms are unknown to us, and of which description could give but a faint idea ; one how- ever may be singled out as a specimen, which, to judge by the figure of it in the e Antarctic Flora/ is no less elegant than singular; this is Dracophyllum longifolium ; it has black bark, and slender, upright branches. The long and very pale green leaves look like bundles of blades of grass springing out of the very tips of the twigs, which gives the tree a very uncommon appearance ; it belongs to the Ejoa- cris tribe, and has little white blossoms with five divisions, which, contrasted with the green- and red-tinted calyx, have a very beautiful effect. Only two or three of the handsome plants which are found on the hills can be mentioned. Perhaps the most 80 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OP PLANTS. striking is Chrysobactron Rossii : to say that it is one of the Asphodel tribe would convey no idea of its appearance to those who only know the English branches of the family : it has tall stiff spikes of deepest orange, set thick with beautiful little blossoms. The spikes are often a span long, and about two inches across. There is another showy plant of the Composite family — Fleurophyllum speciosum , like a large Ox-eye Daisy, only purple ; and a very elegant flower of the same family, called Celmisia vernicosa ; the linear glossy leaves are “ spread out on the ground like the spokes of a wheel ; the flowers are pure white with a purple eye,” and as large as those of the plant last named. “ There is a remarkable predominance of such handsome species over such weeds as Grasses and Sedges.” In Campbell Island, which lies a hundred and twenty miles south of the Auckland Isles, most of the same beau- tiful species occur again ; amongst which the splendid Chrysobactron is conspicuous, studding “ the bright green slopes, so as to give them a yellow tinge, visible a full mile from the shore. There is a belt of brushwood forming a verdant line close to the beach, composed of some of the same trees as those in the Auckland Isles, but in a very stunted state. This is only seen on entering the quiet har- THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 81 hours ; at a distance the rocky mountains appear bare of vegetation.” These islands are an instance of the dissimilarity of vege- tation in the corresponding latitudes of the two hemispheres: though they lie in the same latitude as England does on the other side of the globe, there are “ only three plants found there which are indigenous in our own island.” When compared with other countries in the Southern Hemisphere^. Dr. Hooker finds a greater resemblance to the flora of New Zealand than to any other. The vegetation shows never- theless an incipient leaning to an Antarctic character in some respects, whilst on the other hand there is a kind of anticipation of sights with which we shall become more fa- miliar under a warmer sky, in the tree-like form which the Perils begin to assume in Campbell Island, which is the nearest latitude to the pole in which this tendency has yet been observed. It is very remarkable that Kerguelen's Land, though it lies rather nearer the equator than the last-named islands (in about 50° south latitude, and 70° east longitude), has a much more Antarctic character. “ Even in Spitzbergen there are nearly three times as many flowering plants as there.” The same curious fact occurs in this island too, w hich we met G 82 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS* with in the Polar regions, that in the total absence of trees and even shrubs, at the present day, there are fossil remains of trees and numerous beds of coal there, which afford abundant proof that at one period this land was clothed with forests, which have been destroyed by “ the successive overflowings of volcanic matter,” till the country was re- duced to the “state of almost vegetable desolation” in which it now exists. But why spend our time and thought on such a poor and starved set of plants as we should meet with here, when a world of wonders and an inexhaustible source of interest exists in the submarine vegetable kingdom ? — the seaweeds being, in this part of the globe, amongst the most important features of vegetation. (Plate VI.) It has not indeed been attempted or intended to include the geographical distri- bution of seaweeds in these chapters ; but where they play so conspicuous a part as they do in these regions, it would be a manifest error to omit all mention of them. Prom so rich a store as Dr. Hooker's ' Plora Antarctica' we are sure we may borrow some account of those “ wonders of the deep,” which those only who “ go down to the sea in ships” are privileged to see. Three seaweeds are particularly mentioned as the most remarkable in the Antarctic regions, T THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 83 especially on account of their size, namely, D ' Urvitt