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THE HILL NATURALIST. 



By WILLIAM HODGSON, A.L.S., Watermillock. 



(Read at Carlisle, 1 884 J 



The late H. C. Watson, author of the "Cybele Britannica," 

 divides the surface of the earth into six climatic zones, four of 

 which are represented in the Lake district — the coldest and the 

 warmest of the series being alike excluded. The lowest, which 

 Mr. Watson calls the Midagrarian, extends from o, or sea-level, to 

 an altitude of 900 feet. This zone is marked by the presence of 

 fruticose Rubi or Brambles, Ulex and Alnus. The next zone, 

 Superagrarian, extending from 900 to 1800 feet, is marked at its 

 upper limit, which is about the height of Wester Mell Fell or 

 Calva, by the cessation of Erica, Pieris, and Digitalis, or Cross- 

 leaved Heath, Common Bracken, and Foxglove. The third, or 

 Inferarctic zone, ranging from 1800 to 2700 feet in altitude, 

 includes all our mountains intermediate in elevation between Mell 

 Fell and High Street, Coniston Old Man, or the Red Pike. The 

 line of demarcation between this and the Mid-arctic zone, which 

 includes all our loftiest peaks, is marked generally by the cessation 

 of Calluna in an upward, and of Salix herbacea and Carex rigida. 

 Of course, while working away on the hills, you will here and 

 there encounter individuals of the species here enumerated, that, 

 favoured by peculiar circumstances of soil or aspect, as exposed to 

 the sun or otherwise, have strayed beyond the limits here assigned 

 to them. Should any of our botanical friends meet with such 



