126^ Geographical Collections* 



In seasons when the body of water is great, the noise in this cavern is deafen- 

 ing, and forms a great contrast with the stillness of the valley, where the breeze 

 whispering among the green leaves is alone heard ; but the bright iridescence of 

 beams broken in the falling waters, are seen from there in the greatest perfection, 

 tlie decomposition of light often producing at once coloured arcs and the most ra- 

 diant spheres. 



On leaving this cascade, the sound of waters may be heard creeping along the 

 valley, till a few miles off they are again lost in the bosom of the rock. In their 

 course they become augmented by the waters of many rivulets, and they fall into 

 their subterranean passage with much rapidity and noise. This spot has been 

 called the AInme de Tindernel, and it is not the least remarkable in this interest- 

 ing valley. It has been neglected, and when we were there a stranger had not 

 been seen for years ; but it ought to be no longer so. There are spots from which 

 the wanderer tears himself with difficulty, and of which he ever afterwards retains 

 a most lively remembrance, and such a spot is the valley of Sales. 



Geographical Botany of Germany and Switzerland, 



The limits between Germany and Switzerland are very difficult to be pointed 

 out, and being entirely political, they bear no relation to the physical characters 

 of the country. The vegetation of the mountains is continued in its transverse 

 chains or extensive prolongations, lost by gradual shades in the plains, or found 

 agaui in the compensating influence of equatorial distance or polar approxima- 

 tion. The features presented by the distribution of the larger divisions of the 

 vegetable kingdom are well marked, and variety in the families, and the aug- 

 mentation or diminution of the number of species in each, may be traced in their 

 progressive relation to the three co-ordinates of latitude, longitude, and altitude. 



The number of species that these two countries contain is 3413, distributed in 

 74 families. This number has since received considerable additions from plants 

 discovered in Istria and in littoral Austria. It is true that these countries nei- 

 ther belong to Germany by position or by climate, nor by their inhabitants, and 

 the results, for the geographical botany of Germany, would have been more uni- 

 form, if they had not included the flora of countries belonging to that part of the 

 political circumscription of the country, in which we find the vegetation of the 

 basin of the Mediterranean. 



Among the 3413 species, 619 belong exclusively to the Alps, and 570 are 

 only found to the south of the chain in Istria and the littoral countries. The 

 monocotyledons amount to 696, the dicotyledons to 2717- In northern Germa- 

 ny, the relation between these two divisions is, =; 1 : 4,5 ; in the south the rela- 

 tion is, = 1 : 3,6 ; in Switzerland it is as 1 : 3,74 ; in the plains and low tracts 

 their relation is, = 1 : 3,6 ; in the mountains as 1 : 5, and in the Alps as 1 : 4,7. 

 These results given by Ant. Wiest, ( Untersuchungen ilber die Pflanzengeogra- 

 phischen Verhceltnisse Deutschlands,) confirm those indicated by Wahlenberg 

 and Ringier. 



With respect to their terms of life, the plants of Germany may be distributed 

 into 684 annual, 169 bis-annual, 2170 vivacious, and 390 arborescent. 



The number of bis-annual and vivacious plants is the greatest in Switzerland, 

 a necessary result of a coarser climate and short summers. 



The principal results as found by Mr. Weist, with reference to tlie progression 

 of families in the difiijrent regions, are as follows : — 



Nine families increase in number in proportion to their elevation, the Junceiae, 

 Campanulaceae, Primulaceffi, Gentianeas, Violariea, Saxifragea;, Thymelea;, and 

 Cynarocephalete. 



Twenty-eight others increase towards the plains, and some disappear entirely 

 in the mountains. The Leguminosa;, Chenopodea;, Rubiaceee, Solanccc, Eu- 



