674 



ZONES AND REGIONS [Pt. Ill, Sect. Ill 



surprised, for before me there appeared silvery-white willow-catkins glistening in 

 a state of complete development, some of them peeping out of the snow, and others 

 not more than an inch and a half above its surface. Only a couple of inches deeper 

 down in the snow the very twigs that bore the catkins were frozen stiff towards the 





Fig. 401. Winter-bud of Primula nivalis, halved. Natural size. After Kjellman. 



base ; much more so were the branches, stems, and roots of the shrub, that were 

 completely buried in snow.' 



The surprisingly rapid appearance of the leaves at the beginning of the 



