The flora of Iceland approaches that of Britain, yet only one in four of the British plants are known in Iceland. There are 870 species in Iceland, of which more than half are flower-bearing: this is a greater proportion than is found in Scotland, but there are only 32 of woody texture. This flora is scattered in groups according as the plants like a dry, marshy, volcanic, or marine soil. Many grow close to the hot-springs: some not far from the edge of the basin of the Great Geyser, where every other plant is petrified; and species of Confervæ flourish in a spring said to be almost hot enough to boil an egg. The grains cannot be cultivated on account of the severity of the climate, but the Icelanders make bread from metur, a species of wild corn, and also from the bulbous root of Polygonum viviparum; their greatest delicacy is the Angelica archangelica; Iceland moss, used in medicine, is an article of commerce. There are 583 species in the Feroe islands, of which 270 are flowering plants: many thrive there that cannot bear the cold of Iceland. ARCTIC FLORA OF THE GREAT CONTINENTS. In the most northern parts of the Arctic lands the year is divided into one long intensely cold night and one bright and fervid day, which quickly brings to maturity the scanty vegetation. Within the limit of perpetual congelation the Palmella nivalis (or red snow of Arctic voyagers), a very minute red or orange-coloured plant, finds nourishment in the snow itself, the first dawn of vegetable life; it is also found colouring large patches of snow in the Alps and Pyrenees. Lichens are the first vegetables that appear at the limits of the snow-line, whether in high latitudes or mountain-tops, and they are the first vegetation that takes possession of volcanic lavas and new islands, where they prepare soil for plants of a higher order: they grow on rocks, stones, and trees, in fact on anything that affords them moisture. More than 2400 species are already known; no plants are more widely diffused, and none afford a more striking instance of the arbitrary location of species, as they are of so little direct use to man that they could not have been disseminated by his agency. The same kind prevail throughout the Arctic regions, and the species common to both hemispheres are very numerous. Some lichens produce brilliant red, orange, and brown dyes; and the tripe de roche, a species of Gyrophora, is a miserable substitute for food, as our intrepid countryman Sir John Franklin and his brave companions experienced in their perilous Arctic journey. Mosses follow lichens on newly-formed soil, and they are found everywhere throughout the world in damp situations, but in greatest abundance in temperate climates: 800 species are known, of which a great part inhabit the Arctic regions, constituting a large portion of the vegetation.