222 ROSACEA 



plant may often be found forming extensive tufts or patches several feet in 

 circumference. Meyen says that this alpine mode of growth is nowhere 

 more striking than in the Alpine Flora of the Cordilleras, where the plants 

 first fasten on projecting rocks, and where, in the course of time, their out- 

 spread branches cover the surface of rocks twelve or even twenty feet square. 

 He remarks that frequently in these regions vast blocks of rock are wholly 

 overgrown with a thick and extremely hard turf, which is composed of a 

 single species of plant, and the prostrate branches have formed so hard and 

 entangling a mass, that it is extremely difficult to cut through it, even with 

 the sharpest instrument. The stem of such a family of plants, which is 

 doubtless often a monument of many centuries, seldom, he says, attains the 

 length of a foot, but is sometimes as much as five or six inches in thickness, 

 and has from its base an infinite number of twigs and branches. The 

 higher we ascend on the mountains of our own land, till we gain the 

 regions of perpetual snow, the more these characteristics of vegetation 

 become apparent. Most Alpine plants are perennial, and the root, which is 

 destined to endure a rigorous winter, several months long, is usually very 

 woody, and well shielded by a number of skins. Alpine plants of all 

 countries are remarkal)le for their large flowers, which render them very 

 conspicuous. The beautiful primroses and auriculas, gentians, saxifrages and 

 Avens, are all showy flowers, and combine with many yellow and white com- 

 posite flowers to render the spot very beautiful. Meyen remarks that he 

 cannot fix on any particular colour as predominant in the Alpine Flora. It 

 has long been said that white was the general hue of the flowers ; but the 

 learned German botanist, Schouw, has proved that this is not the case in the 

 mountains of Europe ; and Meyen adds, that on the heights of the Cordil- 

 leras of South America he rarely met with a white flower, and at the limits 

 of perpetual snow never found one of that hue ; though he saw blue, 

 yellow, and violet blossoms even there in abundance. What heart cannot 

 respond to the expressions of Coleridge, when, at Chamouni, he marked 

 the brilliant blue gentians glittering on the very verge of the snow-clad 

 peaks ? — 



" Ye ice-falls, ye that on the mountain's brow 

 Adown enormous ravines slope amain — 



Who bade the sun 

 Clothe you with rainbows ? Who with living flowers 

 Of loveliest blue spread rainbows at your feet ? 

 God ! let the torrents like a shout of nations 

 Answer, and let the ice -plains echo, God ! 

 God ! sing ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice, 

 Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds ; 

 And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow, 

 And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God ! 

 Ye living flowers that skirt the etei'ual frost, 

 Ye A^'ild goats sporting round the eagle's nest, 

 Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm. 

 Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds, 

 Ye signs and wonders of the elements, 

 Utter forth, God ! and fill the earth with praise." 



In all parts of the world the greater number of alpine plants abound 

 in aromatic, bitter, or resinous principles; and it is well known that they 



