The polar and tropical worlds: a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . rctic inits type, was rich in variety and coloring. Amid festuca and other tuftedgrasses twinkled the purple lychnis and the white star of the chickweed; and,not without its pleasing associations, he recognized a solitary hesperis—theArctic representative of the wall-flowers of home. Next to the lichens and mosses, which form the chief vegetation of thetreeless zone, the cruciferje, the grasses, the saxifragas, the caryophylla?, andthe compositfe are the families of plants most lar
The polar and tropical worlds: a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . rctic inits type, was rich in variety and coloring. Amid festuca and other tuftedgrasses twinkled the purple lychnis and the white star of the chickweed; and,not without its pleasing associations, he recognized a solitary hesperis—theArctic representative of the wall-flowers of home. Next to the lichens and mosses, which form the chief vegetation of thetreeless zone, the cruciferje, the grasses, the saxifragas, the caryophylla?, andthe compositfe are the families of plants most largely represented in the barrengrounds or tundri. Though vegetation becomes more and more uniform onadvancing to the north, yet the number of individual plants does not decrease. THE ARCTIC LANDS. 21 When the soil is moderately dry, the surface is covered by a dense carpet oflichens {Cormcularice), mixed in damper spots with Icelandic moss. In moretenacious soils, other plants flourish, not however to the exclusion of lichens, ex-cept in tracts of meadow ground, which occur in sheltered situations or in the. COAST OF LABKADOK. alluvial inundated flats where tall reed-grasses or dwarf Avillows frequentlygrow as closely as they can stand. It naay easil}- be supposed that the boundary-Une which separates the tnn-dri from the forest zone is both indistinct and irregular. In some parts wherethe cold sea-winds have a wider range, the barren grounds encroach consider- 23 THE POLAR WORLD. ably upon the limits of the forests ; in others, where the configuration of thelaud prevents their action, the woods advance farther to the north. Thus the barren grounds attain their most southerly limit in Labrador,where they descend to latitude 57°, and this is sufficiently explained by theposition of that bleak peninsula, bounded on three sides by icy seas, and washedby cold currents from the north. On the opposite coasts of Hudsons Baythey begin about 60°, and thence gradually rise toward the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
