50 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



that the botanist will note the greatest variety and 

 abundance of hilly and subalpine plants, together 

 with many alpine species on summits which, at 

 several points, attain an elevation of from one to 

 two thousand feet or more above the pine limits — 

 Mount Sentis, for instance, Pilatus, the Brienz 

 Rothhorn, the Faulhorn, Niesen, &c. ; and, pre- 

 suming as a rule that the botanical brotherhood are 

 not insensible to such matters, it may be added that 

 in the opinion of many tourists "in search of the 

 picturesque," more extensive and more pleasing pros- 

 pects may be enjoyed from these summits than from 

 far higher ones within the radius of the snow and 

 glacier fields, of which the ascents are too arduous 

 and tedious to admit of much lingering to collect 

 en route, and which, after all, will not be found to 

 yield anything Avhich may not be gathered at lower 

 levels to reward one for the fatigue experienced. 

 Campaiiiila cenisii grows on the Pic de Grivola at 

 12,000 feet ; Ranuricuhis glacialis, Ai'meria alpiua, 

 Pyrethrum alpimim on Monte Viso at 10,500; and 

 Saxifraga bryoidcs \i\\!a. Androsace glacialis elsewhere 

 at 11,500. The highest flowering plants observed 

 by Mr. Whymper in his ascent of the Matterhom 

 •(summit 14,700) were Getitiana Bavarica, Saxifraga 

 muscoides, Sihiie acaiiHs, Thlaspi rofundifoliwn, Vero- 

 nica alpiiia, s,nd B. Potentilla,— frigida, Y>Qr\iZ.^s. Most 

 of the above-mentioned plants may be gathered at 

 7000 feet, and no one need cross the snow-line for 

 the others. 



The lake of Lucerne is, as has been already ob- 

 served, enclosed by hills and mountains wooded on 

 their lower slopes, where these are not too precipitous 

 for vegetation. Such a mountain is the Rigi, collec- 

 tively speaking. Viewed from the lake, the high, 

 bare, rocky face of the south front has a violet or 

 purplish tint of colour, and the rocks are seen to be 

 disposed in parallel strata inclined at an angle of 

 about 25°. They appear to crown the wooded belt 

 below ; but from this they are separated, in fact, by 

 a shelf of fields and pasturage.* These strata are 

 composed of jDudding stone or conglomerate, and 

 sandstone; the rounded, water-worn component ele- 

 ments—granite, gneiss, porphyry, &c., of all sizes — 

 are set in a reddish cement of sand and lime. Huge 

 fragments — rocks, in fact, some of them — covered 

 with moss and other plants, which have been detached 

 from time to time, are observable everywhere in the 

 forests on the lower flanks of the mountain. But 



* It is here that a railway has been constructed on an incline 

 corresponding witli that of the strata. It extends from the 

 village of Vitznau to the Kulm, or summit, and is there in con- 

 nection with a similarly constructed line, which winds up an 

 interior gully from Arth, on the Like of 2ug, on the other side 

 of the mountain. Tliis marvel of engineeiing skill is eflectcd 

 by means of a strong central cogged wheel, which works upon 

 .1 central cogged rail. There is only one carriage, the seats 

 lilted upw ards to correspond with the incline, to each locomotive, 

 and they are not coupled ; in tlie a-cent the engine is behind 

 the carriage, in the descent it is in front and supports or retards 

 it; the progress made is the same either way, three miles an 

 hour. There is also a branch line from the station Kaltbad, 

 two-thirds up, to the eastern or Scheideck summit. 



from the Kulm to the Scheideck granite is evident, 

 while many of the easternmost heights are mair.ly 

 composed of calcareous rock ; over all are erratic 

 blocks of granite — evidence, the whole formation, 

 of glacial action on a vast scale in a very remote 

 age with disruption and displacement by some con- 

 vulsion of Nature at a subsequent period. Geo- 

 logical speculations are, however, no part of the 

 present notice, although there is one item connected 

 with the subject of some little importance, which 

 must not be overlooked, and that is the nature of 

 the subsoil. The elevations being equal, there is, 

 for example, a difference, to an appreciable extent, in 

 the vegetation respectively of a calcareous and of a 

 granitic subsoil. Certain plants are found on one 

 mountain, or on a part of it, which are not found 

 on another mountain, or on a part of that. Rhodo- 

 dendron hirsittiiin affects ground of a limestone 

 character, while the other Swiss species, R. ferriigi- 

 ncnin, though not restricted to it, is more generally 

 seen on primitive rocks. 



The F igi group is between thirty and forty miles 

 in circumference. There can be no very great objec- 

 tion to its being described as a peninsula. Besides 

 the railway, there are mule-paths leading to the 

 summit from several points. That known as the 

 Kulm is not much under 6000, otlier summits from 

 200 to 600 feet lower. The upper surface is every- 

 where clothed with pasture. 



The under-mentioned plants are enumerated as 

 likely to be regarded with interest ; a few of them 

 old acquaintances, though of uncommon occurrence, 

 more or less so, with us. 



I. By the roadside between Weggis and Brunnen. 

 Andropogon ischcEiniini , dry banks. Arabis turrita, 

 dry banks. Biiphthahniuni salici/olinm, grass plots ; 

 a composite with flowers like those of the yellow 

 chrysanthemum. Cynanchuin vincetoxicnm, stony 

 and bushy places : an asclepiad. The flowers are 

 small, yellowish-white, fragrant ; inflorescence, inter- 

 petiolarly, racemose. We have met with it in 

 Normandy, near the sea. Carex tomentosa, swamps 

 near Goldau. Gentiana pncumonajithe, marshy field 

 by the Muotta near Brunnen. Hypericum coris, an 

 elegant little plant with linear invohite leaves, on 

 rocks. Hieracium Florcntinuin, dry banks. Isatis 

 tincforia, sunny corners. Leucojum z'emnni, Laser- 

 pitium siler, rocks, Kindlesmord. Three or four 

 species of this umbel occur on the Swiss moun- 

 tains. One of them, L. or Gay a simplex, is alpine. 

 The genus is characterised by a many-rayed inflo- 

 rescence ; slightly compressed fruit, the secondary 

 ridges furnished with membranous wings ; involucral 

 bracts many, persistent ; corollas in two of the 

 species yellowish, with a purple border. In Gaya 

 the chief distinction lies in the calyx, teeth and 

 membranous wings being rudimentary. CEnothera 

 biennis, roadside. Seseli Itbanotis, dry banks. Teu- 

 criuni viontanum, rocks and banks ; common, more 



