XIII 



AN ASCENT OF MONT VENTOUX 



By its isolation, which leaves it freely exposed on 

 every side to the influence of atmospheric agencies, 

 and from the height which makes it the culminating 

 point of France on this side of the frontiers of Alps 

 or Pyrenees, the bare Provengal mountain, Mont 

 Ventoux, lends itself remarkably to studies of plant 

 species according to climate. At the base flourish 

 the tender olive and that crowd of small semi-woody 

 plants whose aromatic scent requires the sun of 

 southern regions. On the summit, where snow lies 

 at least half the year, the ground is covered with a 

 northern flora, partly borrowed from the arctic 

 regions. Half a day's journey in a vertical line 

 brings before one's eyes a succession of the chief 

 vegetable types met with in the same meridian in 

 long travels from south to north. When you start 

 your feet crush the perfumed thyme which forms 

 a continuous carpet on the lower slopes ; some 

 hours later they tread the dusky cushions of 

 Saxifraga oppositifolia, the first plant seen by a 

 botanist who lands in July on the shores of Spitz- 

 bergen. In the hedges below you had gathered the 



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