During this short summer, the plant life of the Arctics grows very rapidly under the constant stimulus of an ever-shining sun; and before the snow is off the ground, flowers will be in bloom so near the banks of snow that, with the foot, they may be bent over against them. The vitality in these hardy Arctic plants appears phenomenal, and they almost seem endowed with intelligence in knowing what a brief time they are allowed to spring up, blossom and bear seed. They commence early, and hold tenaciously on to all their growth after plants which we are used to seeing, would be prone upon the ground. Middendorf has seen an Arctic rhododendron in Siberia, in full flower all over it, when the roots and the stem were solidly encased in frozen soil as hard as ice. On King William's Land, we had four nights in July and thirteen in August, when the thermometer sank to freezing; and yet I picked flowers in bloom, to within the last three days of the latter month. - Lieut. Schwatka, in Independent.