The people here talked much of an extraordinary kind of tree, growing
near the road, which many persons had visited, but none could find out
what it was. Some said it was an apple tree which had been cursed by a
beggar-woman, who one day having gathered an apple from it, and being on
that account seized by the proprietor of the tree, declared that the
tree should never bear fruit any more.
_May 15._
Next morning I arose with the sun in order to examine this wonderful
tree, which was pointed out to me from a distance. It proved nothing
more than a common Elm. Hence however we learn that the Elm is not a
common tree in this part of the country.
I observed that in these forests plants of the natural family of
_bicornes_ (with two-horned antheras) predominated over all others, so
that the Heath, _Erica_, in the woods, and _Andromeda_[5], in the
marshes, were more abundant than any thing else. Indeed we meet with few
other plants than _Vaccinium Myrtillus_ and _Vitis-Idaea_, _Arbutus
Uva-Ursi_, _Ledum palustre_, &c. The same may be said of the upper part
of Lapland.
[5] It is a curious circumstance that Linnaeus in his MS. here has
the word _Daphne_; but his remark is not in any respect applicable
to that genus, and he evidently can mean only _Andromeda polifolia_.
He had not as yet named either of these genera in print. The origin
of _Andromeda_ will be explained hereafter, and the fanciful idea
which gave rise to it had not perhaps at this time occurred. He
therefore now either intended to call this plant _Daphne_, or he
accidentally wrote one name by mistake for the other, having both in
his mind.
The spiders had now spread their curious mathematical webs over the
pales and fences, and they were rendered conspicuous by the moisture
with which the fog had besprinkled them.
The Red-wing (_Turdus iliacus_), the Cuckoo (_Cuculus canorus_), the
Black Grous (_Tetrao Tetrix_), and the Mountain Finch (_Fringilla
Montifringilla_), with their various notes made a concert in the
forest, to which the lowing herds of cattle under the shade of the trees
formed a base. The weather this morning was delightfully pleasant.
_Lichen islandicus_ grows abundantly in this forest.
After travelling about a mile and half from Hamr[:a]nge I arrived at the
river Tonna, which divides Gestrickland from Helsingland, and empties
itself into the bay of Tonna. The abovementioned lake, called by the
inhabitants Hamr[:a]nge Fj[:a]rden, extends almost to the sea. I was
told it did actually communicate with the ocean. At least there is a
ditch in the mountain itself, whether the work of art or nature is
uncertain, called the North Sound, hardly wide enough to admit a boat to
pass. This is dammed up as soon as the hot weather in summer sets in, to
prevent the lake losing too much water by that channel, as the iron from
several founderies is conveyed by the navigation through this lake.