upon the Distribution of Vegetables. 171 



cum. Our territory forms, in its turn, the western limit of 

 some species peculiar to the mountains of Austria, as the He- 

 racleum austriacum ; whilst the Linum alpinum, Aconitum, 

 Author a, and Dianthus alpinus, extend into Liguria and Pied- 

 mont. The plants of the south side of the Alps sometimes 

 pass their summit, and are found inhabiting the north side ; 

 thus we find upon this side, a great number of species belong- 

 ing to the Flora of the Mediterranean ; none of these however 

 have ventured into the north Tyrol. Our Flora has conse- 

 quently been sheltered from those invasions and mixtures^ 

 which might have altered its primordial character ; neverthe- 

 less, a great number of plants which grow in the fields, must 

 have been propagated with the cultivated vegetables, from 

 which they are inseparable. For instance ; Scleranthus an- 

 num, Agrostemma Githago, Saponaria officinalis, Papaver 

 Rhceas, many veronicas, Centaurea Cyanus, Capsella Bursa 

 pastoris, Solanum nigrum, &c. Some few, as the Thlaspi 

 arvense, Teucrium Scorodonia, and Myricaria germanica, 

 have only been observed within the last few years, in the fields 

 of flax which lie near Jochberg. By the intervention of the 

 vallies of Leuk and Brixen, that of Kitzbuhel has communi- 

 cation with countries belonging to the Scandinavo-Germanic 

 Flora. Some of the plants which form a part of it, stop at 

 the very foot of the mountains; such as, for instance, the Dip- 

 sac us sylvestris, which ceases as early as the vicinity of Reich^ 

 enhalle, whilst the Euphorbia platyphylla ascends as high as 

 Thunsee. The Papaver Rhceas is very common round Scheit- 

 zelreith, and Staphylea pinnata advances to Unken. Analo- 

 gous examples are common in other countries ; thus the Ono- 

 nis natrix pauses in the Tyrol upon the southern slope of the 

 Brenner, while the Saponaria ocymoides is found again on the 

 other side, as well as the Dorycnium herbaceum and Colutea 

 arborescens. Some elevated parts of the territory are occupi- 

 ed, on the contrary, only by northern species, which is more 

 particularly the case with the turfy marshes of Bichlach. 



The result of all that we have been saying is, that at least 

 a third of the plants which compose the Flora of Kitzbuhel 

 belong to other regions ; and that only two thirds can be con- 

 sidered as characterizing the vegetation of the western Tyrol. 

 There also exists a remarkable difference between the vegeta- 

 tion of the north and south parts of the district. Whilst the 

 calcareous ridges of the north lift their naked summits towards 

 heaven, the schistose mountains on the contrary are covered 

 with the richest vegetation. Hegetschweller remarked the 

 contrary in Switzerland, and the author of this extract has 

 had an opportunity of verifying his observations, upon the 



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