Alpine plants are, for the most part, perennial, except the Little Blue Centaury (_Gentiana nivalis_), and perhaps the Single-flowered _Lychnis_ (_apetala_). I wish botanists would endeavour to discover and make known any new kinds of pulse or grain, especially such as are of a hardy constitution, and not likely to suffer from the severity of winter. Some are perhaps to be found among the grasses. It is necessary to ascertain what degree of northern latitude they would bear, and whether they are capable of growing within the frigid zone. It is worthy of inquiry in what respects the Alps, properly so called (of Switzerland,) agree with ours of Lapland, as well as how far, and by what means, they are susceptible of culture. The descriptions that have been given of them may be consulted. The Greenland alps would also be worth examining, to see how far these different countries agree in their native plants, in varieties of situation, and in plenty of soil, compared with the proportion of rocks or large stones. Do they all agree in the diminutive stature of their plants? The tranquil existence of the Laplanders answers to Ovid's description of the golden age, and to the pastoral state as depicted by Virgil. It recalls the remembrance of the patriarchal life, and the poetical descriptions of the Elysian fields. So many Finlanders crowded about me, that I scarcely knew what to do. They were all blear-eyed to such a degree as to be nearly blind. Many of them were perfectly deprived of sight, and ninety-nine out of a hundred that were so had their eyes shut. It seems in vain to prescribe any remedy for this evil, so long as its cause is every where so prevalent. This consists in their smoky dwellings. If I had the management of these Finlanders, I would tie them up to the wall and give them fifteen pair of lashes apiece till they made chimneys to their huts, especially as they have such plenty of fire-wood. This improvement in the comfort of their dwellings might surely be accomplished by the authority of the chief magistrate, for I have not been able to learn any sufficient reason for their adherence to their old way of building. If people thirty or forty years of age are thus afflicted, what must become of them by the time they are seventy? The Finlander's scythe is represented in the annexed figure. [Illustration]