Volume 3
A report on the progress of vegetable physiology during the year 1837 ... / Translated from the German by William Francis.
- Franz Meyen
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A report on the progress of vegetable physiology during the year 1837 ... / Translated from the German by William Francis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![14] posed stone, presents plants forming patches, as Szlene acaulis, Saxifraga oppositifolia, Arenaria rubella. Among these grow Draba alpina and other species, Arenaria ciliata, Myosotis villosa, Dryas octopetala. The loamy soil, which in summer dries up and breaks into fissures 1—3 inches broad (more or less regular polygons), exhibits Platypetalum purpurascens, species of Saxifraga, as 8. Hirculus, and isolated specimens of Draba verna. The mosses gradually collect in the furrows, and among these grows Salix polaris, the most common of the shrubs, whose branches are very short and only send forth two leaves with the catkin from the protecting envelope, together with some species of Eriophorum. As plants of the most sterile soil are enumerated Rhodiola rosea, Erigeron coniflorum, a Vaccinium, which is situated with its woody stem in narrow fissures of rock and only sends forth leaves, Papaver nudicaule, Ranunculus nivalis, which mere- ly requires snow-water, and flowers when the soil is not warmed above 1°. Ozyria reniformis is almost as easily satisfied. But there are also beautifully decorated spots in Nova Zem- bla, where vegetation breaks forth in all the splendour of co- lours, as it were on the ground, for the beautiful flowers never rise above a fewinches high. The purple-coloured flowers of Silene acaulis and Sazxifraga oppositifolia, the blue flowers of the tufts of Myosotis villosa, were varied with gold-yellow Ranunculuses and Drapa alpina, mixed with peach-blossomed Parrye, white Cerastia, blue Polemonia, and the sweet little Forget-me-not, and gave the impression of a variegated carpet. Although this vegetation evidently coincides with that of the alpine regions of southern mountains, yet M.v. Baer observes that here the individual plants occur in greater masses, while in Nova Zembla they are more scattered and mixed with one another, so that in a walk of halfa werst almost half the Flora of Nova Zembla is found united. Especially favoured spots, entirely clothed with a pretty dense covering of plants, are very rare on Nova Zembla; the Ranunculuses, with the exception of Ranunculus nivalis, are al- most solely confined to those spots abundant in humus. But how is it possible for a larger vegetation to occur in these inhospitable islands, since the warmest month in Nova](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33490065_0003_0149.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
