HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Finns pumilio, and low shrubs furnished with small 

 usually oval, entire, often coriaceous leaves — dwarf 

 buckthorn namely, and willow— rhododendron, bear- 

 berry, and a shrubby or suffruticose Polygala. 

 Higher up are exceedingly steep grassy inclines, in- 

 accessible to cattle, more or less flowery ; then more 

 rocky ground covered with debris and ending at a 

 glacier or snow-field. The altitude thus attained 

 may be reckoned at about 8000 feet ; for the last 

 thousand or so the vegetation has been entirely her- 

 baceous, consisting for the most part of alpine species 

 of Ranunculus and Anemone, crucifers, violets, small 

 campions, sandworts, pearlworts and allied genera, 

 dwarf vetches, Alchemilla, Cinquefoil and Dryas, 

 saxifrages, stone-crops, gentians and Primulse, dwarf 

 umbels, composites, and small Scrophulariaceas, to- 

 gether with mosses, alpine sedges, and alpine forms 

 of Fest^ca, Agrostis, Phleum, Avena and Poa. 

 These flourisli up to the line of eternal snow and 

 ice, say 9000 feet on an average ; but a few of them 

 may be collected from crannies and crevices of rocks 

 up to 11,000 in sunny and sheltered situations. 



In fixing a Qooo-foot altitude as the average snow- 

 line, it will be understood that this would vary with 

 the season, v/ith the latitude, with the nature of the 

 rocks and inclination of their slopes, and is, cateris 

 farUms, always lower on the northern and eastern 

 than it would be on the southern and western side of 

 a mountain. It were almost superfluous to observe 

 that the altitude of a mountain above the plain from 

 which it rises is very different to its actual height 

 calculated from the level of the sea. We need not 

 therefore be surprised to note that a partially sub- 

 alpine flora prevails in Switzerland at apparently low 

 levels, as at Thun, for instance, which is 1750 feet 

 above the sea. 



The first jotting a botanist would make in his note- 

 book, supposing him returned from a reconnoitring 

 stroll in the neighbourhood of Lucerne, might be 

 this : wooded hills all around, a lake in front en- 

 closed by them ; behind these, rocky heights more 

 or less scarped, and more or less patched with black 

 forest alternating with green slopes and intersected 

 by ravines ; beyond all, a loftier range with snow- 

 clad summits ; on the left of this lake a group of 

 hills, falling from one point higher than the others 

 abruptly to the N.W. — that is the Rigi. In the 

 opposite direction on the right, and seemingly at no 

 great distance, a mountain of pyramidal form and 

 jagged outline towers naked and precipitous above 

 the pine-clad heights of an intervening upland — this 

 is Pilatus. It is the first week in July, but patches 

 of snow still linger in ravines and hollows near its. 

 "cloud-capped summit." 



On further acquaintance with the place it will seem 

 that outside the town both woods and clearings are 

 unenclosed ; of arable and garden land there is not 

 much, a rye-field occasionally, otherwise meadows 

 and orchards only ; the fruit-trees mostly cherry ; the 



cherries small, little better than what the tree 



affords in its wild state ; the vegetation rank and 



herbage coarse, — indications of excess of moisture and 



summer heat ; the unmown meadows white with the 



inflorescence of umbelliferous plants; — Heracleum, 



Pimpinella, &c, P. magna is common, and on upland 



pastures shows itself, with others of its congeners, in 



handsome form, with flowers of a deep rose colour. 



In wet low-lying grass-land, yellow rattle and orchids 



are to the front in the greatest profusion, and 



especially a narrow-leaved and extremely fragrant 



gymnadenia ; Alchanilla vulgaris is common, and a 



tall thistle of a pale lettuce-green colour and whitish 



inflorescence in compact heads, and blanched stems ; 



C. oleraceus ; others of the genus, common with us, 



are here apparently scarce. Centattrea Jacea takes 



the place of C. nigra. In the copses and borders 



of woods, bilberries, Phyteuma spicatum, Veronica 



urtica-folia, and Prenaiithes purptirea are general ; on 



damp walls by the Reuss, &c., Cystopteris fragilis 



abundantly. Among other marsh plants of ordinary 



occurrence, Seiiecio paludosus is a striking object, 



growing to a height of four or five feet. Of the 



many Carices one species in particular attracted my 



attention as identical with some specimens from the 



fens forwarded to me recently by a correspondent at 



Ely, a curious variety of acuta. Common reeds fringe 



the margin of these meadows by the lake and line 



the ditches which drain them, but in general the 



shore is rocky. The lake itself, an ordinary Pota- 



mogcton or two excepted, is tolerably free from weedy 



gi-owth ; the water usually transparent, and the 



bottom covered with a whitish mud or sediment. 



E. De C. 



(7c? be continued.) 



FLEAS AND FLEABANES. 



I SHOULD be glad to know if, among the various 

 plants said to expel fleas, there are any of 

 proved efficacy. Martial doubts if there is anything 

 pitlice sordidiiis, and in some London rooms in summer 

 nights this agile miscreant works trouble very dis- 

 proportionate to his size. Seeing, then, what a boon 

 it would be to the human race to discover any 

 certain exterminator of these pests, I submit it is an 

 inquiry of no ordinary importance whether any such 

 agent exists in our native flora. 



Fuller linked with his worthies the noteworthy 

 plants of their native counties, and denounces the 

 pride and peevishness of men, who, when they have 

 found medicinal plants, disdain to use and apply them. 



Three native plants are by name associated with 

 fleas, Erigeron, Inula, and Cineraria (this last being 

 classed among the Senecios by some writers). Of these 

 Miss Pratt says that the name of Fleabane, as applied 

 io Erigeron, "refers to some exotic species, which 

 by their strong odour annoy, or by their viscid stems 

 and foliage entangle, the insects approaching them." 



