The herbaceous plants of this region are the same asin the region of Beeches, which nearly all attain the limit of the Pines. In addition to the common Juniper, resting on the soil, as it always does, on high mountains, where the weight of the snow crushes it all the winter; we find the mountain Germander (Veronica montana) and the Tufted Saxifrage (S. cespitosa), which is found on the loftiest ridges of the Alps. “Tts flora thus teaches us, in the absence of the baremeter, that we have reached the Alpine region of Mount Ventoux, and that the region of aborescent vegetation has disappeared. But here the botanist will be delighted to find the flora of Lapland or Iceland, and of Spitzbergen also. In the Alps this region extends to the line of perpetual snow, the home of eternal winter. But as Mount Ventoux is only six thousand three or four hundred feet high, the summit only extends to the lower zone of the Alpine regions in the Alps and Pyrenees. At this point all trees have disappeared, but a crowd of small plants expand their corollas on the stony surface. Among them the orange-flowering Poppy, the Violet of Mount Cenis, the blue-flowered Astragalus, and quite at the summit, the Meadow Grass of the Alps, Gerard’s Euphorbia and the Common Nettle, which is generally found wherever man fixes his dwelling. A chapel has been built on the summit of the mountain since the ascent of Petrarch. But it is not on the south terminal summit, that the botanist will seek for the Alpine plants characteristic of the loftier regions. It is on the northern declivities, on the rocks exposed to the glacial north winds, nearly deprived of the sun during long months, and covered with snow from June. These I have surveyed as I would survey an old friend.. The Purple Saxifrage (8. oppositifolia) was the first plant I recognised; I had gathered iti on the summit of the Reculet, the loftiest ridge of the Jura, and upon all the summits of the Alps which reached or passed the limits of perpetual snow. When I put foot for the first _ time on the icy shores of Spitzbergen, the Purple Saxifrage was among the first plants which attracted my attention; for here is found, on the shore of the sea, the cold summers and the melting © snow of the summits which crown the Alps and the Pyrenees. Upofi Mount Ventoux other Saxifrages, equally Alpine, surround:: _ it. The blue bell-shaped flowers of — Allioni raisedeee a

head from a heap of stones and dwarf plants, which covered all these heights; the round-headed Phyteuma, the hairy Andrasace the Ononis of Mount Cenis, and three species of Arenaria, clung to the rocks or peeped through the stones.”

For the sake of comparison let us leave Provence and Europe, and glance at the Fan ges, in the heart of Asia, of the lofty Himalayas, or ‘“‘abode of snow,” as the word means, in the figurative language of the Asiatics. Dr. Hooker passed the rainy season of 1848 in the sanitary establishment of Dorjilling, the farthest English possession, in Sikkim, seven thousand two hundred feet above the sea, having in sight the loftiest peaks of the range. Twelve of these are more than twenty-four thousand feet high, and one of them, Kinchinjunga, attains the height of twenty-nine thousand three hundred feet. Mount Chumulari, another giant of the Himalayas of Thibet, was visible from a neighbouring peak, the Sinchul, during the ascent of which the author made his first acquaintance with some of the beautiful Rhododendrons with which he afterwards enriched the gardens of Europe. ‘In the month of May,” says the Doctor, “when the Magnolias and Rhododendrons are in flower, the magnificent vegetation of the Sinchul yields nothing in certain respects to that of the tropics, the beauty.of the effect being, however, much diminished by the constant gloom of the season. The white-flowered Magnolia (J. excelsa) is one of the trees which predominate at the elevation of seven thousand to eight thousand feet, and in 1848 it had flowered so abundantly that it seemed as if the broad sides of the Sinchul and other mountains at the same elevation were covered with snow. The purplish-flowered species (M. Campbellii) does not appear under the elevation of eight thousand feet. It is a large but unsightly tree, with dark-almost. black—bark, and few branches, destitute of leaves in winter and while in blossom, but throwing out at the extremity of the branches great bell-shaped flowers of a purplish rose colour, the soil.fleshy petals of which cover all the surrounding

“Upon its branches and upon the Oaks and Laurels, the Rhododendron Dalhousia, a slender creeping shrub, grows as an epiphyte, bearing at the extremity of its branches from three to six white bell-shaped flowers, citronous in odour and with leaves five to scarlet-flowered Rhododendron is raresix inches in length. The

in these woods, but is much surpassed by R. argentum, which here becomes a tree forty feet high, with leaves twelve or thirteen inches in’length, of a deep green above and silvery green on the lower surface, and with flowers, large as those of R. Dalhousia. Oaks, Laurels, Maples, Birches, Hydrangeas, a species of Fig which grows on the summit of the mountain, and three Chinese and Japan genera constitute the chief woodland vegetation of this part of the Sinchul. ‘‘ Beyond this region, that is to say above Dorjelling, the zones of vegetation are well characterised between six thousand feet and seven thousand one hundred feet, first by Oaks, Chestnuts, and Magnolias, which equally characterise the vegetation up to ten thousand feet; secondly, immediately above six thousand feet, a tree-fern appears (Alsophila gigantea); thirdly, a species of Palm, of the genus Calamus, and a Plectocomia; this last shoots up the branches of the loftiest trees, extending itself over the forest to the distance sometimes of a hundred and twenty feet from its stem; finally, a last characteristic trait of the region is the Wild Banana tree, which attains nearly the same height as-the preceding species.” With some difficulty Dr. Hooker obtained permission of the native authorities to go beyond Dorjelling, and, in particular, to visit the higher passes of the Himalaya in Thibet, and especially the principal mass of the Kinchinjunga. Following his steps in this ascent he found at eight thousand one hundred feet the first conifers; all of them at first Abies Brunonia, a fine species, which assumes the form of an obtuse pyramid, with spreading branches like the Cedar; it is unknown in the exterior chain, and occupies in the interior a zone less elevated by a thousand feet than the Silver We meet also at this level with a great Firs (Abies Webbiana). number of sub-Alpine plants belonging to Leycesteria, Thalictrum, Rosa, Gnaphalium, Alnus, Betula, Ilex, Berberis, Rubus, and some Ferns, Anemones, Strawberries, Alpine Bamboos, and Oaks.

On the higher level our traveller saw Junipers mingling with Silver Firs, which were even superseded by evergreen Rhododendrons, spreading along the slopes in immense profusion. _ Spiraas, dwarf J unipers, and small Birch-trees, Willows, Honey-. _ suckles, Barberries, and a species of Service-tree. At twelve thousand a

two hundred feet the vegetation was almost limited to numerous species of Rhododendrons, which formed a continuous zone of eleven hundred feet broad on the steep slopes of the mountain. A little Andromeda made itself quite remarkable there; and by the roadside the botanist saw two plants which reminded him of his far distant home—the Meadow Grass (Poa annua) and the Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella). At thirteen thousand two hundred feet the soil becomes hard and frozen, and at twenty-two thousand feet perpetual snow covers the mountain side.

The traveller finally attained the summit of the pass at twenty-four thousand three hundred feet above the level of the sea, where he still found many species of Compositee, Gramineae, and an Arenaria, with great masses of the curious Saussurea gossypina, covered with a white down, which felt soft to the touch, and about ten inches high. The species of covering given to this plant is almost exceptional among the plants of the Himalayas; the Alpine species which are scattered about, such as the Arenarias, Primroses., Saxifrages, Ranunculus, Gentians, Grasses, and Cype-rads, iving their foliage perfectly naked. The following year Dr. Hooker in one of his ascents towards .Thibet, collected upwards of two hundred species upon one of the _erests of the Himalayas, among which he found ten Crucifera, a twenty Composites, ten Ranunculaceae, nine. Alcinacee, ten As-tragals, eight Potentillas, twelve Graminee, fifteen Pedicularia, and seven Borraginacee. Finally, on the 7th of September, 1849, he reached the culminating point of the Himalaya flora on Mont - Donkia, at an elevation of twenty-three thousand four hundred feet, the lowest limit of perpetual snow being about twenty thousand one hundred and fifty feet. The Arenaria rupifraga is the only Phanerogam which he met with at this elevation; Festuca ovina, a Saussurea, and a little Fern, Woodsia, were, however, found very near the summit, where he observed many Lichens and some Mosses. The Lichens and “Mosses are thus the last plants which disappear on the confines of life.

INDEX.

Abies, 324.

—— pectinata, 328.

Abietineæ, 328.

Aborescent Stems, 25.

Absorption, process of, in Plants, 19.

Abutilon, 380, 383.

—— esculentum, 384.

Acacia, classification of, 56, 79, 197, 443.

—— heterophylla, 83.

—— melanoxylon, 447.

Acanthaceæ, 480.

Acanthus, 480.

Acer Campestre (Maple), 44, 90.

—— pseudo-plantanus, 387.

Aceraceæ, 387.

Aceras, 310.

Achænium, fruit from α, “not,” and χαινω, “I open;” fruit containing a single seed, which adheres to the pericarp, 159, 166.

Achlamydeous (naked) Flowers, 120.

Acids, disappearance of, in Fruits, 162.

Aconites, 396.

Aconitum, 396.

—— hapellus, 392, 397.

—— ferox, 397.

Acotyledons, 221.

—— of De Jussieu, 270.

Acrogenous, from ακρα, “a summit,” and γενναω, “I produce,” or summit-growing stems, 49.

Acrogens, from ακρος, “topmost,” and γεννάω, “to produce,” 221.

Acrogens, 270.

Adansonia, 378.

—— digitata, 378.

Adesmia balsimilfera, 444.

Adenanthera pavonina, 446.

Adoxa maschatellina, 511.

Adventitious buds, 55.

Ægialitis, 472.

Æscidium berberidis, 408.

Aerial roots, 4.

—— stems, 27.

Aerides, 309.

Æsculus hippocastanum (Horse Chestnut), 63, 388.

Agamiæ, 221.

Agapanthus, 319.

Agaricaceæ, 225.

Agaricus Campestris, 252.

—— muscarius, 253.

—— virosus, 253.

Agarics, 251.

Agregata, 204.

Agrimony, 454.

Agrigoideæ, 477.

Agrostideæ, 291.

Agrostis algeda, 291.

Air, a requisite for germination, 189.

—— effect of, 189.

Air Plants, 314.

Alaria Æsculenta, 233.

Albumen, 169, 170, 171.

Alburnum (Sapwood), 35.

Alder (Alnus glutinosa), 87, 334.

Algæ, 225, 517.

Algales, 225.

Alnus glutinosa (Alder), 87, 334.

Aloes, 319.

Aloe-wood, 445.

Alonsoa, 481.

Alismaceæ, 287, 320, 321.

Alismals, 287, 320.

Almond, 448, 449.

—— embryo of, 169.

Alsineæ, 433.

Alsodeæ, 368.

Althæa, 380.

—— officinalis, 383.

—— rosea, 383, 384.

Altingiaceæ, 338.

Alveola, 46.

Amanita, 253.

Amarantaceæ, 435.

Amaranths, 435.

Amaryllidaceæ, 286, 300.

Amentaceæ, 196.

Amentales, 333.

Amentum (Catkin), 125.

Amherstia nobilis, 445.

Ammineæ, 507.

Amomals, 286.

Amplexical, 79.

Amygdalaceæ, 448.

Amygdalus, 448.

—— communis, 449.

—— persica, 448, 449.

—— sinensis, 53.

Amyridaceæ, 421, 426.

Anacardiaceæ, 421.

Anagallis, 474.

Anatropal ovule, 154.

Anchusa officinalis, 476.

Andira inermis, 445.

Andræceum, 151, 185, 270.

Andromeda, 417.

Andropogoneæ, 291.

Anemone (Linnæan classification of), 202.

Anes, 507.

Anethum graveolens, 510.

Angelica, 197, 507, 508, 509.

Angelicideæ, 507.

Angiospermes, plants with seeds enclosed in the fruit, from αγγείον, “capsuled,” and σπερμα, “seed,” 220.

Anise, 507.

Aniseed, 509.

Annulus, 276.

Anomalous, 197.

—— corollas, 143.

Anona squamosa, 392.

Anonaceæ, 391, 392.

Anospermeæ, 362.

Anostomose, 43.

Anthela, the inflorescence in Rushes and Reeds, 126.

Anther, the upper and thick part of the stamen, 144.

Antheraspermacææ, 361.

Antheridium, 271, 275.

Antherozoids, 242.

—— of Fucus, Ozothallia, Pelvetia, and Himanthalia, 242.

—— of Vaucheria, 231, 275.

Anthoceratææ, 271.

Anthospermeæ, 498.

Antiaris toxicaria, 345.

Antirrhinum, 481.

Apetalous, 196.

—— trees, 196.

Apium graveolens, 510.

Apocynaceæ, 460, 461.

Apocynum, 461.

Apostasiaceæ, 286, 315.