as well as with the lesser ovate Dytiscus, shaded with grey, and known by its blunt cloven sternum. (D. cinereus.) On the beach multitudes of black insects without wings, and half covered with shelly cases, were running about. (Probably Cimex littoralis.) There were also abundance of Ephemeræ (May-flies), all which had two prominent fore feet, and three bristles at the tail. I caught several, thus rendering their transient existence still shorter. They were of two species, one larger, of a blackish hue, with dark clouded wings (E. vulgata); the other about half as large, with a blackish thorax, and white wings. (This does not agree with any species in the Fauna Suecica.)
Not far from the shore, on a small elevation, where the trees and underwood had lately been burnt down, grew the Strawberry-leaved Bramble (Rubus arcticus) with jagged petals, a remarkable and elegant variety. (See Fl. Lapp. t. 5. f. 2.)
[43] What this word expresses I am unable to determine.
[44] Linnæus in the Flora Lapponica, ed. 2. 53, tells us that "in times of extreme scarcity the roots of this plant, dried and powdered, are mixed with a small quantity of meal, and serve to make the miserable bread of the poorer settlers in Lapland, which is extremely bitter and detestable." In the same work, p. 259, he describes an excellent kind of bread made of the roots of Calla palustris, which though acrid when fresh, become wholesome if dried, and boiled afterwards in water, as is the case with its near relation our common Arum, and the Jatropha Manihot, or Casava, of the West Indies.
June 14.
It rained very hard in the course of this day, as well as in the preceding night.
The cornfields hereabouts vary in soil, being sometimes clay or sand, sometimes a good mould, and often a mixture of all three. In general they yield some kind of a crop, whatever the weather may be, except it should prove severely cold, which is the ruin of the country.
The forests are beautiful, consisting of Spruce Fir, Common Fir, and plenty of Birch, so that no part of Sweden is more pleasant to travel through while the summer lasts.