should then have only one Cedar; onePicea Cephalonica to represent that tree and P. Apollinis; one Pinus
strobus to represent it, P. excelsa, and P. pezice, and perhaps P. monticola, and so on. This we are not
prepared to accede to. We would pay more regard to the Professor's statement, that he had met with
" numerous intermediate forms meeting," if by that we could understand that there was a gradual change
operating on all the specimens of the trees as we went northward, so that the southern form glided byimperceptible
degrees through all the gradations, from the ordinary form in the south to this form in the
north of the Scandinavian peninsula. But Professor Andersson does not say this. As we understand
him, he only says that at the places he specifies he found exceptional specimens which he could not
determine whether to allot to the one type or the other; but that there exists in Northern Sweden
an alpine form differing from the southern form. According to the other information we have
received, the faCt is that this alpine form is not only found in the north of Lapland, but is confined
to that district; and any intermediate form, or supposed intermediate form, found elsewhere, is not of
general occurrence over the whole district where it is found, but exceptional and individual: as we find
occasionally on Mount Atlas specimens of the Cedrus A tlantica having apparently all the characters by
which we are wont to distinguish the Cedrus Libani.
The most distinctive characters of this species are no doubt such as would appear in Abies excelsa by
arrested development. The smallness of the cones and the rounded margins of the scales are characteristic
of the young cones of A. excelsa, the scales in it becoming gradually more rhomboidal as they increase
in age; so the short leaves and the fewer rows of stomata are what is found in the young state of its
leaf: and it may be said, that, being so, these characters are mere evidences of the severity of the climate in
which this tree lives, and not specific distinctions. So far as regards the origin of the species, there can be
no doubt that these peculiarities correCtly indicate the source from which it has sprung, as well as the process
by which it has been established. But it by no means follows that because they prove the plant to
have sprung from Abies excelsa, and to have assumed them through certain conditions of life, it must therefore
still be A. excelsa. Permanent arrestment, increase or divergence of development, would, on this principle,
give us every species of plant or animal as a state of some other species. We know that in the
embryo of the upper animals, all the classes of inferior animals are successively typified ; and there seems
no good reason why indications of arrested or increased development should be regarded as evidence of
specific identity, any less than what we might call lateral development. We therefore prefer to put this
element aside, and, looking at the characters as we find them, decide upon those which we find permanent,
regardless of what they may have been at some former period in the history of the species.
Geographical Distribution and History.—Found in Swedish Lapland and in Finland, also occupying
the interior of Russian Lapland, and generally extending over the whole of the extreme north of the
Scandinavian peninsula.
The first notice of this species may perhaps be a remark in Dr Wahlenberg's " Flora Lapponica,"
published in 1812. In it he attempts to characterise the climate of the Lapland Alps by
dividing them into zones. In his description of these he says, "On approaching the Lapland Alps
(Fjall) we first arrive at the line where the Spruce Fir, Pinus Abies, ceases to grow. This tree had
previously assumed an unusual appearance, that of a tall slender pole, covered from the ground with short
drooping dark branches, a gloomy object in these desolate forests." The "tall slender pole" here alluded
to may have been this species.
Its distinctness was not, however, definitely pointed out until 1858, when M. Ph. Fries, on his return
from a voyage in East Finmark, noticed it in a grove of Firs on the west side of Colmajaur, nearly two
English miles from Swanvik, in north lat. 69° 30', near the Russian frontier. I Ie thought it was the Pinus
orientalis of Linnaius, distinguished not only by the obovate scales of the cones, but also by the cones being
ereCt, as described by Russian authors. (See " Ledebour Flora Rossica," vol. iii. p. 67 1.) The idea that
the cones were ereCt proved, however, to be a mistake. M. Fries' discovery was noticed in a paper intitled
" Synopsis
" Synopsis of the Vegetable Products of Norway," by Dr Schubeler, which was made use of in connexion
with the Norwegian collection in the Great Exhibition of 1862. In it Dr Schubcler says, "A group
of the Pinus orientalis of Linnaeus is said to have been found in East Finmark, in north lat. 69° 30',
near the Russian frontier."
In the summer of 1863, Mr Fellman, accompanied by two young students of the University of
Helsingfors, made a botanic tour through Russian Lapland, in which they found this to be the universal
form of Spruce everywhere to the north of the Gulf of Kandalak. The narrative of the tour consists of a
letter from Mr Fellman to Professor Nylander, communicated to the Botanical Society of France on
27th November 1863 ; and in one of the notes to it he says: " This variety of Pinus Abies, L. [Abies
excelsa, De Cand.) is distinguished by the scales of the cones, which are obtuse and entire; it is very
widely spread in Finland. Some botanists have mistaken it for the P. orientalis, L. The form in
Eastern Lapland scarcely differs from P. obovata, Rupr., which has the scales of the cones still more
obtuse than the Finnish form [A. medioxima, W. Nyl.). Frequent passages unite these forms, often
in appearance very distinCt, with the type of the Pinus Abies, L." On this we have only to repeat what
we have already said, that we believe that these passages relate to individual specimens, and not to the
prevailing type over broad traCts of country. That that is so here is apparent from Mr Fellman's text.
He says, "With regard to Alder trees, I only met with the A Inns pubescens, Tausch., in Eastern
Lapland; it disappears to the north of Ponoi (on the Gulf of Kandalak on the south coast of Russian
Lapland), where some small bushes are still to be met with, and it does not appear again until near the
fjord of Kola (on the north coast of Russian Lapland on the shores of the Arctic Ocean). The same
thing takes place with the Spruce, which everywhere appears to be the Pinus Abies, var. medioxima,
W. Nyl., or the obovata, Rupr. No Abies of a tolerably typical form grows except between
Kandalak and Kunsamo." This, we think, bears us out in regarding the form as regional; and if
regional, then specific, notwithstanding occasional transitional individuals being found here and there.
In relation to the distribution of this species in the south of the peninsula of Russian Lapland, he tells
us that the southern coast of the Lapland peninsula offers little interest, for it is low, sandy, and
consequently very sterile, reckoning from Umba, or, to speak more exactly, Tursi, a small peninsula
about six leagues west of Umba. At certain places, as for example at Kusomen, a village situated
at the mouth of the river Warsuga, he met with true deserts of sand. To the west of Tursi the coast
is granitic, and surrounded with numerous rocky islets; to the east, on the contrary, it is flat and sandy
as far as Pialitsa (66° 10'), where it begins to rise. The water near the coast is low; islets and bays
are awanting. At Pialitsa clay is met with, but sand predominates, although rocks are to be met
with here and there. He tells us that " the forests of the south coast are formed of Birches and Firs.
The Pine (Pinus sylvestris, L.) appears less able to support the maritime climate, and withdraws more
and more into the interior in proportion as we advance towards the east: the same may be said of the
wood generally, although the observation is more especially true of the Pine. Already near Pialitsa the
coast is naked, and it is not until half a league from the sea that a forest of a few rare and gnarled
Birches occurs. The first Spruces did not shew themselves until the distance of about a league, and a
little further off they formed a continuous forest." The Spruce here spoken of is the A. medioxima.
" This tree attains there a height of 25 feet and a circumference of 2 feet. The Pine, on the contrary,
was awanting in the coast region so far as we were able to explore it. The peasants said that it was
met with at the distance of two leagues from the sea. Schrenck indeed says that the Pine reaches to
Sosnovets, but it appears to have disappeared there, for a Lap who inhabited that district affirmed that
there was not a single tree to be met with there. In the bay called Kislaia-guba (between Pialitsa and
Ponoi) I ascended a tolerably high point, from thence to discover the forest; but as far as the view could
reach all was desert and naked." The vegetation of this desert is composed chiefly of Cladonia, of
Stereocaulon, of Platysma nivale, and Empetrum nigrum: These treeless deserts are called tundras.
The severity of the climate in the above district where this form of the Spruce grows may be
j- j B gathered