Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

fauna.]
RUSSIA
77
compose the forests, the soil of which is dry, and the extension
of which is interrupted by green prairies. Viewed from a rising
ground the landscape presents a pleasing variety of corn-field and
forest, while the horizon is broken by the bell-towers of numerous
villages along the banks of the streams.
Viewed as a whole, the flora of the forest region must be regarded
as European-Siberian; and, though certain species disappear towards
the east, while new ones make their appearance, it maintains, on
the whole, the same characters throughout from Poland to Kam¬
chatka. Thus the beech (Fagus sylvatica), a characteristic tree
of'western Europe, is unable to face the continental climate of
Russia, and does not penetrate beyond Poland and the south¬
western provinces, reappearing again in the Crimea. The silver fir
(pichta) does not extend over Russia, and the oak does not cross the
Urals. On the other hand, several Asiatic species (Siberian pine,
larch' cedar) grow freely in the north-east, while several shrubs
and herbaceous plants, originally from the Asiatic steppes, have
spread into the south-east. But all these do not greatly alter the
general characters of the vegetation. The coniferous forests of
the north contain, besides conifers, the birch (Betula alba, B. pub-
cscens, B. fruticosa, and B. verrucosa, which extend from the
Petchora to the Caucasus), the aspen, two species of alder, the
mountain-ash (Sorbus aucuparia), the wild cherry-tree, and three
species of willow. South of 62° - 64° north latitude appears the
lime-tree, which multiplies rapidly and, notwithstanding the
rapidity with which it is being exterminated, constitutes entire
forests in the east (central Volga, Ufa). Farther south the ash
(Fraxinus excelsior) and the oak make their appearance, the latter
(Qucrcus pedunculata) reaching in isolated groups and trees as far as
to St Petersburg and South Finland {Q. Robur appears only in the
south-west). The hornbeam is prevalent in the Ukraine, and the
maple begins to appear in the south part of the coniferous region.
In the forest region no fewer than 772 flowering species are found,
of which 568 dicotyledons occur in the Archangel government (only
436 to the east of the White Sea, which is a botanical limit for many
species). In central Russia the species become still more numerous,
and, though the local floras cannot yet be considered complete, they
number from 850 to 1050 species in the separate governments, and
about 1600 in the best explored parts of the south-west. Corn is
cultivated throughout this region. Its northern limits—which are
sure to advance still farther as the population increases—almost
reach the Arctic coast at the Varanger Fiord ; farther east they
hardly extend to the north of Archangel, and the limit is still
lower towards the Urals. The northern frontier of rye closely corre¬
sponds to that of barley. Wheat is cultivated in South Finland,
but in western Russia it hardly passes 58° N. lat. Its true domains
are the oak region and the Steppes. Fruit-trees are cultivated as
far as 62° N. in Finland, and as far as 58° in the east. Apricots
and walnuts flourish at Warsaw, but in Russia they do not extend
beyond 50°. Apples, pears, and cherries are grown throughout the
oak region.
The Region of the Steppes, which covers all southern Russia, may
be subdivided into two zones—an intermediate zone and that of
the Steppes proper. The Ante-Steppe of the preceding region and
the intermediate zone of the Steppes include those tracts where
the West-European climate struggles with the Asiatic, and where
a struggle is being carried on between the forest and the Steppe.
It is comprised between the summer isotherms of 59° and 63°, being
bounded on the south by a line which runs through Ekaterinoslaff
and Lugaft. South of this line begin the Steppes proper, which
extend to the sea and penetrate to the foot of Mount Caucasus.
The Steppes proper are very fertile elevated plains, slightly
undulated, and intersected by numerous ravines which are dry in
summer. The undulations are scarcely apparent to the eye as it
takes in a wide prospect under a blazing sun and with a deep-blue
sky overhead. Not a tree is to be seen, the few woods and
thickets being hidden in the depressions and deep valleys of the
rivers. On the thick sheet of black earth by which the Steppe is
covered a luxuriant vegetation develops in spring ; after the old
grass has been burned a bright green covers immense stretches,
but this rapidly disappears under the burning rays of the sun and
the hot easterly winds. The colouring of the Steppe changes as
if by magic, and only the silvery plumes of the kovyl (Stipa
pennata) wave under the wind, giving the Steppe the aspect of a
bright yellow sea. For days together the traveller sees no other
vegetation ; even this, however, disappears as he nears the regions
recently left dry from the Caspian, where salted clays covered with
a few Salsolacese, or mere sands, take the place of the black-earth.
Here begins the Aral-Caspian desert. The Steppe, however, is not
so devoid of trees as at first sight appears. Innumerable clusters
of wild cherries (Prunus Chamsecerasus), wild apricots (Amygdalus
nana), tchilizhnik (Caragana frutescens), and other deep-rooted
shrubs grow in the depressions of the surface and on the slopes of
the ravines, giving the Steppe that charm which manifests itself in
the popular poetry. Unfortunately the spread of cultivation is fatal
to these oases (they are often called “ islands ” by the inhabitants) j
the axe and the plough ruthlessly destroy them.
The vegetation of the poimy and zaimischas in the marshy
bottoms of the ravines, and in the valleys of streams and rivers, is
totally different. The moist soil gives free development to thickets
of various willows {Sal/icinese), bordered with dense walls of worm¬
wood and needle-bearing Composita, and interspersed with rich but
not extensive prairies harbouring a great variety of herbaceous
plants ; while in the deltas of the Black Sea rivers impenetrable
masses of rush (Arundo Phragmites) shelter a forest fauna. But
cultivation rapidly changes the physiognomy of the Steppe. The
prairies are superseded by wheat-fields, and hocks of sheep destroy
the true steppe-grass {Stipa pennata), which retires farther east.
A great many species unknown in the forfest region make their
appearance in the Steppes. The Scotch pine still covers sandy
spaces, and maple {Acer tatarica and A. campcstre), the hornbeam,
and the white and black poplar become quite common. The number
of species of herbaceous plants rapidly increases, while beyond the
Volga a variety of Asiatic species join the West-European flora.
The Circum-Mediterranean Region is represented by a narrow
strip of land on the south coast of the Crimea, where a climate
similar to that of the Mediterranean coast has permitted the
development of a flora closely resembling that of the valley of the
Arno. Of course, human cultivation has not yet acclimatized
there the same variety of plants as that imported into Italy since
the Romans. It has even destroyed the rich forests which sixty
years ago made deer-hunting possible at Khersones. I he olive
and the chestnut are rare; but the beach reappears, and the
Pinus Pinaster recalls the Italian pines. At a few points, such as
the Nikitsky garden and Alupka, where plants have been accli¬
matized by human agency, the Californian Wellingtonia, the
Lebanon cedar, many evergreen trees, the laurel, the cypress, and
even the Anatolian palm {Chamazrops excelsa). flourish.. The
grass vegetation is very rich, and, according to lists still incom¬
plete, no fewer than 1654 flowering plants are known. On the
whole, the Crimean flora has little in common with that of the
Caucasus, where only 244 Crimean species have as yet been found.1
The fauna of European Russia does not very materially differ Fa
from that of western Europe. In the forests not many animals
which have disappeared from western Europe have held their
ground ; while in the Urals only a few—now Siberian, but formerly
also European—are met with. On the whole, Russia belongs to
the same zoo-geographical region as central Europe and northern
Asia, the same fauna extending in Siberia as far as the Yenisei
and Lena. In south-eastern Russia, however, towards the Caspian,
we find a notable admixture of Asiatic species, the deserts of that
part of Russia belonging in reality rather to the Aral-Caspian
depression than to Europe.
For the zoo-geographer only three separate sub-regions appear
on the East-European plains—the tundras, including the Arctic
islands, the forest region, especially the coniferous part of it, and
the Ante-Steppe and Steppes of the black-earth region. _ The Ural
mountains might be distinguished as a fourth sub-region, while
the south coast of the Crimea and Caucasus, as well as the Caspian
deserts, have their own individuality. .
As for the adjoining seas, the fauna of the Arctic Ocean off the
Norwegian coast corresponds, in its western parts at least, to that
of the North Atlantic Gulf Stream. The White Sea and the Arctic
Ocean to the east of Svyatoi Nos belong to a separate zoological
region connected with, and hardly separable from, that part of the
Arctic Ocean which extends along the Siberian coast as far as to
about the Lena. The Black Sea, of which the fauna was formerly
little known but now appears to be very rich, belongs to the Medi¬
terranean region, slightly modified, while the Caspian paitakes of
the characteristic fauna inhabiting the lakes and seas of the Aral-
Caspian depression.
In the region of the tundras life has to contend with such un¬
favourable conditions that it cannot be abundant.. Still, the rein¬
deer frequents it for its lichens, and on the drier slopes of the
moraine deposits four species of lemming, hunted by the Canis
lagopus, find quarters. Two species of the white partridge {Lagopus
albiis, L. alpinus), the lark, one Plectrophanes, two or three species
of Sylvia, one Phylloscopus, and the Motacilla must be added.
Numberless aquatic birds, however, visit. it for breeding purposes.
Ducks, divers, geese, gulls, all the Russian species of snipes and
sandpipers {Limicula, Tringa), &c., cover the marshes of the
tundras, or the crags of the Lapland coast. _
The forest region, and especially its coniferous portion, though it
has lost some of its representatives within historic times, is still
rich. The reindeer, rapidly disappearing, is now met with only in
Olonetz and Vologda ; the Cervus pygargus is found everywhere,
and reaches Novgorod, The weasel, the fox, and the hare are exceed-
1 jBiMioamBftz/,—Beketoff, Appendix to Eussian translation of Giiesebacli and
Reclus’s Geogr. Univ.\ Ledetiour, Flora Rossica; Trautvetter, Rossige Arcticse
Planf*. 1880: Id., Florx Rossicx Pontes', for flora of the tundras, Beketoffs
“ Flora of Archangel,” in Mem. Soc. Natur. at St Petersburg university, xv.; 1884 ;
Regel Flora Rossica, 1884; floras of separate governments in several scientiflc
neriodicals: Brown, Forestry in the Mining Districts of the Urals, Reports
by Commissioners of Woods and Forests in Russia, 1884; Forestry Almanac
(Lyesnoi Calendar) for 1885.