The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-04-20
FLOWERS OF THE SNOW.
What schwatha Found Blooming ia the
Arctic Regions.

tropics nave from O,Ou0 10 0O, OO0 species
OF plants, tbs north temperature zone
about 90, 900 species, and the Arctic gives
about or less than I, 900, with some 9, 900
among the Alpine flora, or about 5000
species enjoying CD an Arctic climate.
Small as this cold weather class is, it
amounts co more than most people give it
credit for having, the popular opinion
being that the polar regions and snow
clad mountain tops are practically devoid
! Of vegetation. 1t is singular, too, that
while there are 762 kinds OF flowers in
the Arctic regions, within the Antarctic
circle Towering plant has never yet
been found. Everything is against plant
| life at that end Of the earth's aXletree.
The weather is more severe throughout
| the year, and there are few tracts of
land of great extent on which plant life
can flourish; and we have already seen
that it is well inland ON large land areas
where such lie tlourishes the best in the
| Arctic, where il can absorb some of the
little heat that il coming down, without
being chilled to death by contiguous ice
| fields.
But of these 762 kinds of Towering
plants in the Arctic, only some 80 Of
| them, as far as we know, or about one
fifteenth, are wholly residents of that
zone. Thus it is seen that q nival or Al
| pine flora, as compared with that of the
| Arctic, is a much more distinctive one,
,, or has more species wholly its own in
proportion to the total number found.
| The polar flowers seldom have any per-
| fume, and the few that exhibit this de-
lightful quality, however feeble, are,
think, from that class that have crept
over the cold border marked by the Arc
| tic Circle; or, in short, none of the fifty
mentioned - Esquimau flowers, we
might call them, in popular way--have
any appreciable odor.
The color of these boreal blossoms are
generally of the cold tints, as if in har-
mony with the chilly surroundings, in
stead of the warm hies that would break
| in upon the desolation with double effect
| by sheer contrast where so few cheering
sights are to be; seen. White and light
yellow predominant, and these colors
seem associated with frosts and cold
weather, for it appears that those flowers
we call ''everlastings," and which are
the longest to defy the nippings of the
coming winter weather, are mostly tinted
like the northern SHOWS and yellow
northern lights. 1t is in the depths of
Old Ocean that we find some of the
largest expressions of plant life in the po-
lar zone. Here, within a short distance
of shore, are colossal kclps and other life
that grow throughout the year; of
course, negotiating the most in the short
summer months.
Land plants, as already said, are pig
mics compared with those of the sea, or
even the corresponding class in the lower
ATTITUDES, and this dwarfed condition, a
naturalist tells us, is not due SO much to
the intense cold in the Arctic winter as
to the fact they do not get enough
warmth in summer to develop them per-
fectly. DIR. Joseph Hooper mentions it
as a rare property of one of the gramineee
| {the grasses), Trisetum Subspicatum, that
it is the only polar species known which
is equally an inhabitant of the Arctic and
Antarctic regions.
Nearly all of tho plants of these cold
countries are of the biennial or perennial
sorts, as the season is too short to give
ANIMALS the whole length of time they
demand for the maturing of their fruit
| to insure the next seasons growth. These
| perennials act like our hardy spring flora,
by rapidly pushing their growth before
the snow is all off tho ground and with
the very first cessation of the vernal cold.
have seen flowers in bloom SO close to
the snow on King Williams land that
think the foot could be put down and
leave an impression ON the edge of the
snow and crush the flower at the same
step; while Middendorf, Siberian
traveller of note, says that he has seen a
rhododendron in that country in full
flower.
1t is hardly to be expected that any
useful or cultivated plants should be
found within the limits of the frigid
zones, and yet both are known in this
unexpected locality. There is the scurvy
grass, rough cruciferous plant that is
famous for the good it has done among
explorers in that rough cline in contend.
ing with the terrible disease which has
given it its distinctive name. Barley is
grown in good crops as high rs Alien, in
Norway, in latitude 70 degs. north, OF
about $50 miles above the Arctic circle.
1t is June, July and August in growing,
and the rapidity of this polar growth
under never setting sun may be plainly
shown by stating that these barley stalks
have been known to grow two and n half
inches in twenty -four hours. Where the
heat is held by little valleys this Nor.
wegian barley may, in favorable seasons,
be ready to cut in about two months
after sowing; and thus two crops secured
in one summer; just as California brags
of its two crops of certain growths in one
season. But what would California think
of bleak Norway as 81 competitor in rails
ing three crops on the same piece OF
ground in one year? There Is tradition
in the province Of Thelemarken-tht
place from whence comes the celebrated
Bnowshoe men Of Norway-that a certain
farm known as. the Triset gets the frs
syllable, tri (three), from the three crop:
once reaped on the land in one season
Rye, which is not so hardy, is cultivated
in Norway for $50 to 200 miles above the
Arctic circle, and even in Sweden it II
carried up to that line. Barley wa
raised in Iceland from $40 10 400, ant
then abandoned for more profitable cattle