After having glanced at those extensive divisions of the earth's surface, consisting of the ocean, the prairie, the desert, and the primeval forest, there still remains unnoticed another equally interesting portion of the earth, viz., the mountainous regions, in which latter the vegetable kingdom is displayed in all its endless variety. Let us take a brief view of Scotland, as an example of a mountainous district, where in the rich valleys we observe the oak, the elm, the ash, the sycamore, and the poplar, flourishing most luxuriously, in many parts by the side of the rich cereal crops and fertile meadows, which latter constitute the province, wealth, and occupation of the farmer. This may be well seen in the Lothians, a southern district of Scotland, and many other localities so justly celebrated for a scientific and successful system of farming-such farming too as is only to be seen in Scotland. For I believe, that in those districts, the Scotch farmer has achieved greater success in agriculture than can be witnessed in any of the more southern counties of England, where there is land as rich, and, in some instances, richer in quality and more solar heat. Then let the traveller take a glance at the county of Perth, further to the north, one of the most picturesque parts of Scotland, where there are woods, rivers, mountain streams, heath, moor, and pine forests.

At Dunkeld, in that county, he will commence with the mountainous districts. There he will observe a change in the vegetation, proportionately as he ascends the mountain range. He will then become acquainted with the different kinds of pine trees such as Scotch fir, the larch (first introduced into Scotland by a former Duke of Athol), the spruce, the beautiful mountain ash, with its fine red fruit forming a most beautiful object in the landscape, which is indigenous to the soil. He will

observe, also, growing in great profusion by the side of the mountain stream, the alder, a tree also indigenous to the soil. And under the branches of these fine trees he cannot fail to observe, in every direction, other beautiful tribes of herbaceous or succulent plants. Here may be observed, growing in all its beauty, the blooming and delicately-tinted rose. And when he ascends to the more lofty part of this elevation, he will observe the trees become gradually less, until they disappear; to be substituted for another class of plants, viz., the heather (or calluna vulgaris), and other ericas or heaths, which grow in broad, continuous, and widely-diffused masses, not dissimilar in extent, from the extensive area over which they are found, to the North American prairie, but quite opposite in character, there being an entire absence of grasses, which constitute the peculiar feature of the meadow.

This is the district over which the sportsman has to wend his way on the 12th of August in pursuit of grouse, when he finds himself surrounded by a perfectly lovely and blooming ocean of flowers, of a reddish hue contrasted with others of an equally delicate and exquisite tint. This beautiful blooming heather reaches, in some cases, nearly up to the knee of the pedestrian, in others not so high, entirely deprived of trees and shrubs of every description whatever, forming one uniform even sea of flowers, brilliant pink, red, and scarlet, spread like a carpet over the surface of the hills, whose distant and blooming tops are visible for many miles, when lit up by the rays of the glorious sun. In the middle of this group of calluna vulgaris, or heather, a plant was discovered some years ago, the menziesia cærulia (a very beautiful heather), but only in one locality. Some selfish nurseryman, for the sake of money-making, rooted it up and placed it in his own grounds to propagate it, and

thereby deprived the Scottish mountains, of its one locality, of a very beautiful and rare plant. At the roots of the heather, the botanist and sportsman will be constantly treading and crushing another numerous and widely-diffused class of plants, viz., the lichens and mosses, whose colour and character contrast most strikingly with the bloom of the heather.

Taking the botanist from Scotland to Norway into the same heathery region, he would observe a difference in regard to the distribution of species. The Linnæa borealis (another beautiful alpine plant, named after Linnæus, the famous Swedish naturalist) is found, perhaps, in not more than one or two localities in England, and but rarely in Scotland. This plant, and its still more rare species the menziesia cærulia previously mentioned, I found growing in perfect crops in Norway, covering the hills for miles, even as far as the horizon extended; these having taken the place of the calluna vulgaris, or common heather of Scotland.

A Letter Addressed to the Botanical Society of Edinborough.

Having very recently returned from a botanical excursion in Norway, I beg to offer to the Society a few remarks upon the vegetation of that singularly wild and romantic country. I proceeded along the coast from Christiansand to within sixty miles of the North Cape, and found almost without exception the most possible sterile mountains next to destitution. Scarcely a tree of the genus pinus, which grows so luxuriantly in the interior, dares to show its face to the chilling blasts of the Atlantic. I went on shore first at Malde, in latitude 61°. This place lies in a sheltered position, and was consequently decorated with trees, such as betula

alba, alnus incana, pyrus aucuparia. In this locality I observed calluna vulgaris, but not common. The geographical distribution of this plant forms a striking difference between the botany of Norway and Scotland. Instead of finding the ground covered with it as I expected, after traversing six hundred miles of the interior, including the Dover field, where Sneehatten exhibits the loftiest part of the Norwegian range of mountains, although the empetrum negrum was a crop, I could scarcely find a specimen of the calluna vulgaris. I must here observe, that, when ashore near Malde, I visited a very wild granitic little island, being almost entirely composed of masses of boulders, of granite, and gnies, yet a particularly good soil was formed, producing a herbage sufficiently rich to depasture some of the largest and best cows in Norway. It was there I became acquainted with a fact which tended not a little to excite my surprise, viz., that the only specimen of digitalis purpurea which I met with during the whole of my tour, had most fancifully and very correctly chosen this apparently barren place to vegetate in; I say correctly, because it was as fine a specimen as I ever beheld. The plant here equally as common as the digitalis in England (and indeed it seems to resemble it in two respects, viz., locality and abundance) is the aconitum septentrionale. Wherever I travelled I could not get rid of it; and in the south, in the woody regions, it was almost arborescent. I afterwards proceeded to Tromsoe, in latitude 70°, and ascended a mountain opposite to the town about three thousand feet above the level of the sea. There I only botanized but for a day. I enumerated, with the valuable assistance of Professor Blytt, of Christiana, and was enabled to take specimens of the rarest plants from a district never previously botanized. The

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sum total of plants which I collected amounted to one hundred and thirty-two species, many other plants escaping my notice. The extreme fertility of the base of the mountain was well shown in specimens of betula alba, alnus incana, the largest I ever remember to have seen. Trollius Europæus here grew very large, and in great abundance, far beyond the region of the trees, even by the side of saxifraga nivalis. Myriads of these most beautiful plants, with their corollas similar to little globes of butter, were gracefully waving their heads in this frozen region, which astonished as well as delighted me. Among the rare plants were draba lapponica, diapensia lapponica, arnica angustifolia, ranunculus, nivalis epygmæus, and glacialis. I was very much reminded of Scotland by collecting specimens of silene acaulis, arbutus alpinus, dryas octopelala, azalea procumbens, in great plenty. I will enclose a list of the one hundred and thirtytwo species found at Tromsoe, in order to contrast with an account of the vegetation of Davis' Straits communicated to the Society by Mr. George Dickie, of Aberdeen. Mr. Dickie states, that only fifty-two species were found over a latitudinal range of 9°, being from latitude 67° to 76° north, and they were all found on the seacoast, with the exception of three specimens at an altitude of three to four hundred feet above the level of the sea; whilst at Tromsoe (to state at a guess) trees and trollius Europæus were found growing at one thousand feet more luxuriously than I ever saw them in any other locality. Many of the other and rarer plants were collected at an altitude of three thousand feet, and one hundred and forty-three species were collected during a twelve hours' excursion in one district extending over an area of a few miles. I think this a remarkable fact when compared with