362 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



species of Arabis were found on rocks far up amongst the snow. 

 The genus Pedicularis, of which there are upwards of twenty 

 distinct Alpine species, varying in colour from light yellow to 

 purple, and in height from small prostrate specimens to sturdy 

 plants 18 to 20 inches high, was well represented by P.foliosa, 

 L., P. verticillaris, L., and P. recutita, L., a rather rare species 

 growing on the banks of a stream. Some plants whose habitat 

 is the high mountain slopes were found flourishing on the sides 

 of the torrents, having been washed down by the rush of melting 

 ice and snow. Amongst these was Primula integrifolia, L. 

 But perhaps the most striking feature was the presence of 

 crocuses flowering through the ice. At the margin of the great 

 snow slopes where they gradually thinned off at the base of 

 the mountains, the snow became a firm, breakable sheet of ice, 

 and through this clear, caked, solid mass, the white and blue 

 flowers of the Crocus had penetrated, and were spread wide open, 

 flowering under the bright sun. The films of hard ice were a 

 quarter of an inch thick, and the ice-holes were found to be 

 smooth, quite round, and capable of allowing a small sized pencil 

 to pass through. Among the large boulders at the mouths of 

 the passes were beautiful examples of Soldanella alpina, L., 

 S. pusilla, Baumg., and S. montana. Willd., while sometimes the 

 entire mountain slope would be dazzlingly blue with the brilliant 

 colouring of Viola alpina, L. Dr. Brown illustrated his paper 

 by the exhibition of many of the species named above. 



