Part 12

I continued my journey to Hyttan, and in my way passed a marshy place, such as the Laplanders call _murki_. Close to the borders of it grew the least _Thalictrum_ (_T. alpinum_), with four pale petals, and twelve stamens with long anthers, their filaments purple. In another part grew an _Androsace_ with two drooping flowers. It had five stamens; one capitate pistil; an ovate fruit of one cell; a five-cleft calyx, and a swelling (corolla of one) petal. It is therefore not a good _Androsace_. (This was unquestionably _Primula integrifolia_, see _Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 52_, which Linnaeus, in that work, seems to have confounded with _P. farinosa_. Speaking of the latter he says, "This _Primula_, the splendid crimson of whose flowers attracts the eyes of all who traverse the fields of Scania and the meadows of Upland in the early spring, did not occur during my whole journey till after I had ascended the Lapland Alps, where it grew very sparingly, furnished with only two or three flowers, and those of a very pale hue, so that in the mountains of Lapland it deserves neither the name of Caesar nor of Regulus[56]. The stem of the plant, however, in these regions was a span or more in height, which is hardly the case in any other part of Sweden." _Fl. Lapp. ed. 2. 51._ Hence it appears that the real _P. farinosa_ ought to be struck out of the Lapland Flora, provided no botanist has found it there since Linnaeus made the above remarks.)

[56] See Simler, who calls the _Primula farinosa_ "Caesar or Regulus among herbs."

_Sceptrum Carolinum_ was in blossom near the water, as well as the gloomy _Aconitum_ (_lycoctonum_), "whose flowers with us are not yellow, as the synonyms of authors assert, but every where of a blueish ash-colour[57]."

[57] This remark of Linnaeus I have borrowed from Fl. Lapp. n. 221.

Here also grew _Juncus palustris_, _calamo trifido_ (_J. trifidus_); the Violet with a yellow flower (_Viola biflora_); and the Wood Stitchwort with heart-shaped leaves (_Stellaria nemorum_, which Linnaeus, in Flora Lapp. n. 186, confounds with his _Alsine media_, or _Stellaria media_, _Fl. Brit._ a mistake he corrected in his _Species Plantarum_).

Shortly afterwards I came within sight of an oblong and very lofty mountain, situated on the right-hand, called Carsavari, composed of a coarse kind of fissile stone, upon which pure native alum is found; see Bromell (in the _Acta Suecica_ from the year 1726 to 1730).

Very near the last-mentioned mountain is situated another, called Tavevari, remarkable for two rivulets running down from its summit, and falling over a rock in the middle of their course.

Concerning the spots or imperfections in the skins of reindeer, it is certain that they originate in the perforations made by insects, probably a species of _Tabanus_, through which those insects introduce their eggs. When the young ones arrive at maturity, they come forth by the same passage, and the wound is closed by a scar. On this subject, lest any person should be misled by authority, or by the writings or reports of others, I shall quote the learned work of Linder on _Syphilis_, _p. 11_. "Reindeer in Lapland are subject to the small-pox, which in Norland is termed Kormsiuka, as I was informed at Wicksbergensbrun by Zachary Plantin, master of arts." In this the able writer has been totally misled, by a person usually esteemed no less honest than profoundly learned. I cannot however conceive how a man, who values himself upon such a character, should willingly and deliberately propagate a falsehood. He ought, on the contrary, rather to aim at correcting it. If the reindeer should even have the small-pox every year, this supposed disease will prove on examination nothing else than the sting of the Gad-fly (_Oestrus Tarandi_). Did any man ever advance such an absurdity! Even the Laplanders themselves call the disease _Kurbma_ (which is the name of the fly that actually causes it).

One of the Laplanders' dishes, called _Kappi_, or _Kappa-tialmas_, is prepared in the following manner. While the milk of the reindeer, intended for making cheese, is warm, before the rennet is added to it, a film rises to the top, which is taken off carefully with a spoon, and put into the bladder of a reindeer. This is hung up against the side of the hut to dry; after which it is eaten, being esteemed a great delicacy. They frequently mix some kind of berries with it when used. The fruit called _Hjortron_, (Cloud-berry, or _Rubus Chamaemorus_,) bruised and eaten with milk of the reindeer, is also a very palatable Lapland dish. The milk of this animal affords at least twice as much cheese in proportion as any other milk. Butter is very seldom made by these people, nor is cream ever used for that purpose, as it scarcely rises in sufficient quantity. Milk only is used, being agitated in a wooden vessel with a whisk. The butter is of a white colour.

Candles are not in use among the Laplanders, though the tallow of the reindeer is very fit for that purpose, notwithstanding its consistence being less firm than that of ordinary tallow. These people preserve it in bladders, and boil it for food. Each reindeer yields but a small quantity of tallow in proportion to its size, not more than a sheep; having none between the muscles, like oxen and other cattle, but only round them.

Viviparous Bistort (_Polygonum viviparum_) grew hereabouts two spans in height. The _Trientalis_ in moist situations had obtuse petals (see _Fl. Lapp. n. 139, [epsilon]_). The Water _Epilobium_ in this place had very broad leaves. (_E. palustre [beta]. Sp. Pl. 495._ _Fl. Lapp. n. 148._) _Geranium_ (_sylvaticum_) had sometimes a white flower with purple veins, and blue anthers; sometimes the petals, as well as anthers, were white.

THE LAPLAND ALPS.

_July 6._

In the afternoon I took leave of Hyttan, and, at the distance of a mile from thence, arrived at the mountain of _Wallavari_ (or _Hwallawari_), a quarter of a mile in height. When I reached this mountain, I seemed entering on a new world; and when I had ascended it, I scarcely knew whether I was in Asia or Africa, the soil, situation, and every one of the plants, being equally strange to me. Indeed I was now, for the first time, upon the Alps! Snowy mountains encompassed me on every side. I walked in snow, as if it had been the severest winter. All the rare plants that I had previously met with, and which had from time to time afforded me so much pleasure, were here as in miniature, and new ones in such profusion, that I was overcome with astonishment, thinking I had now found more than I should know what to do with.

1. _Alchemilla_ with fingered leaves, silky underneath, but without flowers. (_A. alpina._)

2. _Jussiea_[58], with ternate leaves, abrupt and three-toothed at their extremities. (_Sibbaldia procumbens._) The calyx is of one leaf, very large, in ten segments, the five alternate ones of which are smallest, as in the strawberry tribe. Petals five, ovate, yellow, shorter than the calyx, and inserted betwixt its segments. The five stamens also proceed from the calyx. Pistils from five to ten, capitate at their summits, affixed laterally to the middle of the seeds, as in _Alchemilla_. (See the remarks of Linnaeus, respecting the natural order of this plant, in _Fl. Lapp. n. 111_).

[58] In this and many following instances, the original names in the manuscript are here retained, as a matter of curiosity to the learned botanist, who will be interested in seeing to whom Linnaeus extemporaneously dedicated his new genera as they occurred, and who will at the same time admire his sagacity, in determining them, at first sight, so correctly, that not one has subsequently been set aside by any of his severest critics.

3. _Dillenia._ Stem woody. Flower purple. (_Azalea procumbens._) Calyx coloured, small, five-cleft, acute, purple, permanent. Petal one, erect, bell-shaped, five-cleft half way down, acute, purple. Stamens five, shorter than the petal. Pistil one, seated on the embryo, the length of the calyx. Stigma capitate. Seeds numerous, roundish. Pericarp globose, of five cells and five valves. Leaves ovate, evergreen, opposite, resembling those of the Cranberry. (_Vaccinium Oxycoccus._)

4. _Bannistera._ (_Diapensia lapponica._) Calyx of large, ovate, imbricated leaves, first two, then two more, then five, so that they are nine in all. Petal one, with a short wide tube, its disk (or border) in five obtuse spreading segments. Stamens five, from the segments of the calyx (corolla), erect, broad, looking like intermediate prominent segments; the anthers situated on their inner side, at the top. Pistil one, upright, awlshaped. Stigma obtuse. Pericarp round with a point, invested with the calyx, of three cells. Seeds several, round. Leaves oblong, narrow, obtuse, reflexed, lying imbricated over each other.

(Slight sketches only of these plants are annexed to their descriptions in the manuscript, but perfect figures of the two last may be seen in _Fl. Lapp._)

5. _Saxifraga_ with oblong serrated leaves, and lanceolate petals. (_S. stellaris._) The leaves are about the root, oblong inclining to lanceolate, serrated with a few teeth. Stem naked, with several flowers at its summit. Calyx permanent, five-cleft, acute, reflexed. Petals five, somewhat spreading, oblong, sharp at each end, white, marked with two yellow dots upon the claw. Stamens ten, awlshaped, the length of the calyx. Anthers purple. Embryo (germen) with two horns. Style none. Stigmas obtuse.

6. _Saxifraga_ with palmate five-cleft obtuse leaves. (_S. rivularis._) Lower leaves cut half way down into five roundish segments; upper one in three segments. Stem short, flowering at the top. Calyx five-cleft, erect. Petals five, ovate. Stamens ten. Embryos two (rather two-horned).

7. _Saxifraga_ with a creeping stem, the leaves placed in a quadrangular form. (_S. oppositifolia_). Stems like those of a _Sedum_, creeping. Leaves oblong, obtuse, hairy at the edge, small; the points sometimes bony (or cartilaginous). Flower large. Calyx of five blunt leaves. Petals five, erect, purple, large, oblong, obtuse. Stamens ten, purple, erect, shorter than the petals, with scarlet anthers. Embryo divided. Styles none. Stigmas obtuse.

8. Female Rose-root, _Rhodia_. (_Rhodiola rosea._)

9. _Rhodia montana abortiens._ (Male plant of the same.) Differs from the female in having five lanceolate petals, and five leaves to the calyx; though often but four.

10. Purple Water _Lychnis_, (_L. dioica,_) a variety with four-cleft petals. (See _Fl. Lapp. n. 182_.)

11. _Pinguicula_ with the spur shorter than the petal. (_P. alpina._) The petal is white with a yellow beard, like a _Melampyrum_. Leaves narrower than in the common kind; spur shorter and funnel-shaped, not cylindrical.

12. _Ranunculus minimus_, leaves three-cleft, their side-lobes divided. (_R. nivalis_, var. [gamma]. _Fl. Lapp. t. 3. f. 3._)

13. _Ranunculus_ with bluntly-triangular plaited petals. (_R. glacialis._) The lower leaves are in many deep segments; the upper three-lobed, their lobes three-cleft. Calyx purplish, hispid. Petals five, very large, white, dilated upwards, obtuse, plaited at the upper edge. Stamens and anthers erect, numerous, very short, yellow. Pistils many, in a convex head, with slender points.

14. _Ranunculus_ resembling Winter Aconite. (_R. nivalis._)

15. _Draba_ with lanceolate leaves and twisted seed-vessels. (_D. incana._)

16. A small _Hesperis_ with a white flower, and oblong flat pods. Leucojum of Rudbeck? (_Arabis alpina._)

17. _Cochlearia_ with leaves like _Plantaginella_, (_Limosella aquatica_,) and umbellate pods. (_Cardamine bellidifolia._)

18. _Andromeda_ with leaves like _Empetrum_, and a blue flower. (_A. caerulea._)

19. _Andromeda_ with leaves like a _Lycopodium_, and a white, half-ovate, half-five-cleft flower. (_A. hypnoides._)

20. _Alisma_, rather _Arnica_, with lanceolate three-ribbed leaves, the radius with three teeth. (_Arnica montana [beta]._)

21. _Caryophyllata_ (_Geum_) with a solitary upright flower. Must it not be a distinct genus? The petals are eight. (_Dryas octopetala._)

22. An abortive variety of _Saxifraga_ n^o. 5 (_stellaris_), with small, obtuse, white petals, purple anthers, and a white embryo; but very rarely flowering, as the blossoms are all transformed into clusters of minute leaves. (See _Fl. Lapp. t. 2. f. 3_.)

23. _Pedicularis_ with bluntly serrated leaves, and a pale flesh-coloured flower, with a deeper-coloured spot on the lip. The upper lip is narrow; the lower in three equal segments. Calyx large, hairy. Fruit hoary. (_Pedicularis hirsuta._)

24. Dwarf Catchfly. (_Silene acaulis._)

25. The same with stamens, but an abortive fruit. Pistils three. Petals obtuse, emarginate. Capsule of one cell. Stamens ten.

26. _Sagina_ with emarginate petals and an oblong capsule. Pistils three. Is it an Alsine? (_Stellaria biflora_; see _Fl. Lapp. n. 158_.)

27. _Salix villosa_, with sessile ovate leaves. It is a humble plant. (_S. lanata._)

28. Subterraneous willow, with orbicular concave leaves, male. (_Salix herbacea._)

29. Female of the same, with red fruit.

30. _Veronica serpyllifolia_, upright, with a blue flower. (_V. alpina._)

The lofty mountains, piled one upon another, showed no signs of volcanic fire, but were covered with stones, all of a fissile kind, and by that means easily distinguishable. From the snow, which lay so plentifully on these mountains as to cover half the ground, water was continually running down in streams like so many springs, or like rivers cut through the deep snow, for the refreshment of travellers. We found it very good.

The little alpine variety of the Ptarmigan (_Tetrao Lagopus_) was now accompanied by its young. I caught one of these, upon which the hen ran so close to me, that I could easily have taken her also. She kept continually jumping round and round me; but I thought it a pity to deprive the tender brood of their mother, neither would my compassion for the mother allow me long to detain her offspring, which I restored to her in safety.

After having walked four or five miles in the course of the night, I went to sleep in the morning in one of the cottages of the country.

_July 7._

The inhabitants, sixteen in number, lay there all naked. They washed themselves by rubbing the body downwards, not upwards. They washed their dishes with their fingers, squirting water out of their mouths upon the spoon, and then poured into them boiled reindeer's milk, which was as thick as common milk mixed with eggs, and had a strong flavour. Some thousands of reindeer came home in the morning, which were milked by the men as well as the women, who kneeled down on one knee.

From the top of the head of some of these reindeer I took out the maggots which trouble them so much. I observed here in plenty the large fly with a yellow neck, and yellow segments of the body, (_Oestrus Tarandi_,) which probably is the same insect (in a perfect state), as I judge by the length of the legs.

My hosts gave me _missen_ to eat; that is, whey, after the curd is separated from it, coagulated by boiling, which renders it very firm. Its flavour was good, but the washing of the spoon took away my appetite, as the master of the house wiped it dry with his fingers, whilst his wife cleaned the bowl, in which milk had been, in a similar manner, licking her finger after every stroke.

I also tasted some _jumo_, which they mixed with reindeer's milk, but it did not please me.

This day I gathered the following plants. (The numbers are continued from _p. 291_.)

31. _Saxifraga_ with a tuberous root, a simple stem flowering at the summit, and bulbs in the bosoms of the leaves. (_S. cernua._) This has much resemblance to the common Saxifrage, (_S. granulata_,) but bears only one flower at the top of the stem, which is pendulous before it opens. The petals and stamens are white. In the bosom of each leaf are about ten naked anther-like little heads (or buds), which grow out into embryos of future plants. It inhabits watery places.

32. A very small _Juncus_, with a _spatha_ of two leaves, enclosing two seeds; (rather capsules, but Linnaeus wrote seeds, because it appears by the manuscript that he took the plant at first for a _Carex_.) This is one of the smallest of grasses, bearing a solitary spike, one floret of which has an upright glume, (or leaf of the _spatha_,) the other a reflexed one. The petals are whitish. Pistil snow-white. Stamens six. (This can be no other than _Juncus biglumis_, see _Engl. Bot. t. 898_, omitted in Linnaeus's own edition of Fl. Lapp. and supposed to have been first found by the celebrated Dr. Montin in 1749.)

33. _Carex_ with several black loose pendulous spikes, one of which is male, two or three female. (_C. saxatilis._)

34. _Draba_ with a yellow flower. (_D. alpina._) Pod like the rye-flower. (_D. verna_, see _p. 5_.)

35. _Salix_ creeping under ground, with elegant roundish-oval, rugged, rigid leaves. (_S. reticulata._) Male and female.

36. _Salix_ with oblong, obtuse, slightly serrated leaves. (_S. n. 367, Fl. Lapp.?_) In marshy places.

The Willows often grow to the height of a man in moist places, or on islands in the rivers, but in elevated situations no tree is more than a foot high; nor is there any plant, except the dwarf birch (_Betula nana_) and the Willows, that affords the inhabitants any wood.

37. A very small _Pedicularis_, with the aspect of the _Sceptrum Carolinum_. The fruit is curved. (_P. flammea._) This very elegant little plant so exactly represents the _Sceptrum Carolinum_, plentiful here in moist places, one might take it for a representation of that in miniature. The leaves are brownish, pinnate; their segments imbricated. Flowers four, five, or more, at the top of the stem. Calyx like that of _Sceptrum Carolinum_. Petal with an erect upper lip, which is narrow, compressed, and brownish; the lower lip horizontal, three-cleft, saffron-coloured, like all the rest of the flower. Root like skirrets.

38. _Saxifraga_ with oblong, acute, thickish leaves, rough with rigid hairs at the edges. (_S. aizoides._) It had not yet flowered, but I afterwards found the blossoms, which were yellow, with a large, flat calyx, in five ovate segments. Petals five, small, ovate, yellow besprinkled with orange. Embryo yellow, two-horned. Stigmas orbicular, flat, whitish. Stamens awlshaped, five of them very short.

39. _Juncoides capitulis psyllii_, with loose heads of flowers. (_Juncus campestris._) Also another with conglomerated heads. (_J. campestris [beta]_. _Fl. Lapp. t. 10. f. 2._ Certainly a distinct species.)

The birds I saw were Snow-buntings (_Emberiza nivalis_); Green Plovers in great plenty, (_Charadrius pluvialis,_) called by the Laplanders _Hutti_; and Wheat-ears. (_Motacilla Oenanthe._)

The Laplanders of this neighbourhood do not often take the diversion of shooting. They are seldom masters of a fowling-piece; and when not occupied in following or attending the reindeer, they remain in idleness for whole days together, feeding on nothing but milk, and the dishes prepared from it.

I satisfied myself here that the crackling noise made by the reindeer does not originate in the hoof, nor in the lowermost joint of the foot.

The women of this neighbourhood smoke tobacco as well as the men. Every body learns to smoke about the age of twelve or fifteen.

Whenever I gave my host about an ell of twisted tobacco, I was sure to obtain in return a cheese of double its value.

The large-flowered _Cerastium_ (_C. alpinum_) was here every where in abundance, and the prickly _Lycopodium_. (_L. Selaginoides?_).

The neighbouring mountain abounded with a very black fissile aluminous stone.

The surface of the snow appeared to have a vibratory motion, like water slightly agitated, or like a large white sail swelled by the wind.

All the inhabitants of this neighbourhood wore garments made of reindeer skins.

_July 8._

The plants I found this day were the following.

40. _Michelia._ (_Azalea lapponica._)

Its calyx is inconspicuous, green, in five obtuse segments. Petal one, erect, gradually dilated upwards, divided almost down to the base into five ovate segments, purple, deciduous. Stamens five, proceeding from the receptacle, erect, shorter than the petal, purplish, thread-shaped, with roundish anthers. Pistil one, thread-shaped, inclining to one side, longer than the petal, with a globose embryo, and thick stigma. Pericarp membranous, globose, of five cells and five compressed valves, the cells fixed to the column, as in _Ledum_, bursting at the top. Leaves thick, ovate, evergreen, clustered at the tops of the branches, as in _Ledum_. Flowers about three, at the extremity of each branch, each on a simple uncoloured stalk. Is this the same genus with _Dillenia_ (_Azalea procumbens_, n^o. 3.)? I think not. In that the calyx and flower-stalks are coloured; two flowers proceed from each bud; the petal is firm, and cut but half way down; the calyx is half as long as the petal; the pistil is erect, shorter than the petal; the stamens are directed inwards, and not attached to the receptacle. (Notwithstanding these reasons, Linnaeus united the two plants together in his _Flora Lapponica_, as one genus, under the name of _Azalea_, quoting two synonyms of Tournefort and Bauhin for this n^o. 40, which belong to _Rhododendrum ferrugineum_, his own plant being entirely new, if not a pentandrous variety of that _Rhododendrum_, which is much to be suspected. The above description, of the fruit especially, is sufficient to show it cannot belong to the same genus with _Azalea procumbens_, though perhaps it may accord better with the American _Azaleae_.)

41. _Campanula_ with a contracted flower. (_C. uniflora._) Differs from the common blue kind, (_rotundifolia,_) in having the leaves as well as the flower much contracted at the base, so that the latter is funnel-shaped. The embryo is oblong, with six sides, rough, with three orifices near the base of the calyx.

42. _Lychnis_ with a concealed flower. (_L. apetala._) Leaves pink-like. Flower solitary at the top of the stalk. Calyx ovate, inflated, closed, with ten black hispid ribs, which branch near the top. Petals five, oblong, brownish, shaped exactly like the usual claws of a _Lychnis_, but without any border. Stamens ten. Embryo oblong, inclining to cylindrical, contracted in the middle, obtuse, blackish. Pistils five, whitish. The petals, stamens and pistils are all concealed within the calyx.

43. A small _Aster_, with one solitary white flower. (_Erigeron uniflorum._) It has the calyx of the _Amellus_, the flower of a daisy, white with a yellow disk.

44. A viviparous grass, _Poa_. (Rather _Festuca vivipara_.)

45. _Juncus_ with a sharp rigid point. (_Juncus_, _n. 116. Fl. Lapp._)

46. A Catchfly which is not viscid, with the flowers collected into a tuft. (_Lychnis alpina._)

47. A smooth _Cerastium_, agreeing in every respect with the large-flowered one, except the hairiness and hoary aspect of the leaves. (_C. alpinum_, a smooth variety.)

I observed every where about the sides of the hills holes dug by the Lemming Rat. (_Mus Lemmus._) Hares are grey in summer upon the alps.

No herb or tree on the highest parts of these alps attains more than a quarter of an ell in height, though in the valleys the same species may perhaps be two or three feet high. Birch trees, which however are very scarce, creep in a manner under the earth, throwing up the tips of their branches here and there to the height of a quarter of an ell. Tender shoots of this kind sometimes conceal a very knotty depressed stem.