From Novaia Zemlaia we pass to Spitzbergen, whose flora contains about ninety-three species of flowering or phænogamous plants, which, like those already mentioned, generally grow in tufts or patches, as if for the sake of mutual protection. The delicate mosses which clothe the moist lowlands, and the hardy lichens which incrust the rocks up to the remotest limits of vegetation, are very numerous. Some of the Spitzbergen plants are found on the Alps, at elevations varying from 9000 to 10,000 feet above the sea-level; such as the _Arenaria biflora_, the _Cerastium alpinum_, and the _Ranunculus glacialis_. The only esculent plant is the _Cochlearia fenestrata_, which here loses its bitter principles, so much complained of by our Arctic explorers, and may be eaten as a salad. Iceland moss and several grasses afford sustenance for the reindeer. * * * * * A very different description is given of Kamtschatka, to which we are once more brought in the course of our rapid survey. Its climate is much more temperate and uniform than that of Siberia, and as the air is humid, the herbaceous vegetation is extraordinarily luxuriant. Not only along the banks of the rivers and lakes, but in the avenues and copses of the woodlands, the grass attains a height of fully twelve feet, while the size of some of the compositæ and umbelliferæ is really colossal. For example, the _Heraclium dulce_ and the _Senecio cannabifolius_ frequently grow so tall as to overtop a rider upon horseback. The pasturage is so rich that the grass generally yields three crops every summer. A species of lily, the dark purple _Fritallaria sarrana_, is very abundant, and the inhabitants use its tubers instead of bread and meal. If the fruits of the bread-fruit tree are pre-eminent among all others, as affording man a perfect substitute for bread, the roots of the sarrana, which are very similar in taste, rank perhaps immediately after them. The collection of these tubers in the meadows is an important summer occupation of the women, and one which is rather troublesome, as the plant never grows gregariously, so that each root has to be dug out separately with a knife. Fortunately the work of gathering the tubers is much lightened by the activity of the Siberian field-vole, which excavates an ample burrow, and stores it for winter provision with a large supply of roots, chiefly those of the sarrana. * * * * * To sum up:--