VEGETATION OF HIGH MOUNTAINS. 



Box. 



Verbascum f { ^ e s \^ e ones »r;he ver bascum Mucoid, that beautiful and 

 Mycom. 



scarce plant, which does not belong either to the genus in 



which Linneus has placed it, or perhaps to any natural order 

 yet defined, and which has so exotic an appearance, that it 

 distinguishes itself like the kingfisher, among our indigenous 

 birds, invariably keeps to the same direction. Nothing is more 

 abundant in all the great valleys of the Pyrenees, in every soil 

 and exposition : yet the very same soil and exposition never 

 attract it to any of the collateral ones. I could cite a multi- 

 tude of similar examples, but it is sufficient at present, to men- 

 tion one more, the box tree. This shrub, so very robust, is 

 affected by elevation like the most delicate ones. At the base 

 of the Pyrenees, both on the French and Spanish side, it covers 

 every hill : thence it enters the great valleys, running from 

 the north-east towards the south, but never quits them ; in 

 .vain do the numerous branches of these valleys offer it an asy- 

 lum ; passing their openings, it keeps to its first direction, 

 stopping on the crest of the chain at about 2000 metres above 

 the level of the sea, and appearing again on the other side at a 

 similar elevation, and in a similar direction, from which it never 

 deviates. 



Thus it is, that in high mountainous countries we discover 

 the strongest traces of the original design of nature ; there, 

 each order of vegetables is confined within narrower bounds j, 

 there, local influence more powerfully resists every other. Ne- 

 vertheless, the lapse of ages, and especially the presence of 

 but even here man, has here introduced many modifications ; for, in tra- 

 mochfied by versing the immense deserts of these high mountains, among 

 the rare plants which form their herbage, some few of the 

 commonest here and there occur. If the verdure takes a 

 deeper tint than usual, contrasted with the gayer colour of the 

 alpine turf, the ruins of a hut, or a rock blackened by smoke, 

 explain the mystery. Around these asylums of man, we find 

 naturalized the common mallow, nettle, chickweed, common 

 dock . A shepherd had possibly sojourned here some weeks, 

 and, hither, in driving his flocks here, had also attracted with- 

 out knowing it, the birds, the insects, the seeds of the plants 

 of his lowland cot. He may possibly never return, but these 

 wild spots have received in an instant the indelible impression 



of 



Local influ- 

 ence striking 

 in mountain- 

 ous coun- 

 tries, 





