Lapland Flora with no fewer than 580 species. The distribution of
these plants according to him is as follows :
The Snow Alps contain not more than 93 species of perfect plants.
The Subalpine region contains 125 species, and among these only a
very few shrubs and no trees. The Woody region is the richest, and
contains about 313 species of perfect plants. Lapland, as might be
expected, is rich in cryptogamous plants. The lichens (using the
word as Linnæus did) amount to 207 species; the musci amount to
about 200 species; the fungi to 94 species; and the algce to 5 5 . The
grasses (including the carices and eriophera) amount to I02 species.
There are no fruit trees. There are 26 species of trees, provided we
reckon all the salices as trees, to which, however, they are not all entitled.
These trees are the Scotch fir, the spruce fir, the birch, the
alder, the poplar, the mountain ash, the bird cherry (a shrub), and
19 species of salices, or willows. The species of perfect plants found
by Wahlenberg, in Lapland, amount to 496; the remaining 591 species
are cryptogamous plants.*
As to the mineralogical structure o f Lapland, we are not possessed
of much accurate information, as it has never been traversed by any
professed mineralogist. Linnæus indeed paid some attention to the
rocks which he observed : but the science in his time had made so little
progress, that it is not always possible to draw any correct inferences
from his observations. It is probable that the greatest part of the
country, like Sweden, is primitive. Linnæus obviously met with
gneiss and mica-slate, both primitive rocks. We know that the
country abounds in mines of iron just as Sweden itself does. I examined
a good many specimens o f these ores in the cabinet of theGollege of
Mines at Stockholm, and found them all magnetic iron ore, thé same
which occurs so abundantly in Sweden. In the iron mine o f Gellivare,
which is situated in Lulea Lapmark, a little to the north of latitude
67°, and in 21° east longitude from Greenwich, Mr. Svedenstierna
* For the very curious account of the climate and vegetation of Lapland, contained in
this chapter, I am entirely indebted to Wahlenberg*s, I/itroductio Geogruphicu to his Flora
Lapponica, published at Berlin, 1812.
found crystals o f zircon mixed with the ore in considerable quantity.
He pointed them out to me in several specimens in the College of
Mines. Copper mines also exist in Lapland; but from the nature of
the climate, and the want o f inhabitants, we can scarcely ever expect
that these mines can be wrought with advantage. Baron Hermelin indeed
formed a project of that kind, and carried it on for some time
with that spirit for which he is so remarkable; but it ended in the ruin
o f his fortune.
There is a kind of catalogue of Lapland minerals at the end of Acerbi’s
Travels in Sweden; but it gives us no information whatever of the natu
re o f the country, and has been obviously drawn up, or at least
translated into English, by a person not in the least acquainted with
mineralogy. This fondness o f travellers to shine in every department
o f science is very much to be regretted. It has led to an infinite number
o f mistakes, and prevents us from being able to place much confidence
in the writings o f travellers in general. It would be easy to
point out some British travellers, even of excellent talents, who have
fallen into this blunder, and who, not satisfied with writing upon
those subjects with which they are acquainted, have filled their books
with topics about which they knew little or nothing.