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 Linnæus, respecting the natural order of this plant, in Fl. Lapp. n. 111).
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.