The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . ic inits type, was rich in variety and coloring. Amid festuca and other tuftedgrasses twinkled the purple lychnis and the white star of the chickvveed; and,not without its pleasing associations, he recognized a solitary hesj^eris—theArctic representative of the wall-flowers of home. Next to the lichens and mosses, which form the chief vegetation of thetreeless zone, the cruciferic, the grasses, the saxifragas, the caryophylla?, andthe comi)ositai are the families of plants most la
The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . ic inits type, was rich in variety and coloring. Amid festuca and other tuftedgrasses twinkled the purple lychnis and the white star of the chickvveed; and,not without its pleasing associations, he recognized a solitary hesj^eris—theArctic representative of the wall-flowers of home. Next to the lichens and mosses, which form the chief vegetation of thetreeless zone, the cruciferic, the grasses, the saxifragas, the caryophylla?, andthe comi)ositai 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 ofhchens (Cornicularke), 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 LABRADOR. alluvial inundated flats where tall reed-grasses or dwarf willows frequentlygrow as closely as they can stand. It may easil}- be supposed that the boundary-line which separates the tun-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- £2 THE POLAR WORLD. ably upon the limits of the forests ; in others, where the configuration of theland prevents tiieir action, tl»e woods advance farther to the north. Thus the l)arren <rroiinds attain their most southei-ly limit in Labrador,where they descend to latitude .57°, and this is sufficiently explained by theposition of that bleak peninsida, bounded on thixe sides by icy seas, and washedby cold currents from the north. On the ()p])osite coasts of Hudsons Baythey bcLiin aljout 00, and thence gradually lu
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