208 TEA^'SACTIOXS AND PKOCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. lxiii. 



some of which seemed more like hybrids than typical plants. 

 The Edelweiss must not be omitted. 



On the side of the roads, or amongst the woods that 

 clothed the slopes of the mountains and led to San Moritz, 

 were large patches of Eriopliontm alpinum, L., side by side 

 with bog-loving plants belonging to the Carex, Junnis, and 

 Luzula genera. Linncca horcalis, L., was in luxuriance at 

 the foot of tall firs which looked darker than they were 

 really, from the confused festoons of Usnea harbata, of 

 grotesque hoariness. Loniccra cdpina, L., grew in a gully 

 frequented by chamois, which we had the fortune to see 

 at close quarters, and L. nir/ra, L., adorned some of the 

 trees. We made the acquaintance also of the high- 

 growing dwarf Piiius muglius, Scop, 



Some trees, such as the Arctic Willows and the Arolla 

 Pine, were conspicuous, and though now apparently indi- 

 genous, are not really so. They hail from Siberia. Sir John 

 Lubbock informs us that they could not, under existing 

 circumstances, cross the intervening plains, but must have 

 occupied them when the climate was colder, and afterwards 

 been driven up into the mountains, like the marmot and 

 the chamois, as the temperature rose. 



Here also, on rocky crevices, were Primulas which had 

 ilowered, but which were easily identified as Primula viscosa, 

 All. ; P. liirsnta, All. ; and P. interirifolia, L. ; and in the 

 meadows were P. farinosa, L. 



The Alpine fiora of this neighbourhood, as seen by us, 

 was confined to our excursions to the Piz Languard and 

 the shoulders of the Ijernina range. 



The Bernina Hospice lies four miles farther along from the 

 Bernina Houses, which mark the entrance to the Heuthal. 

 On the way we get beyond the zone of trees. Some twenty- 

 two scarred, ragged, lop-sided firs show the sharp severity 

 of the weather they have to face. Another evidence of 

 the winter there is seen in a black line on the third storey 

 of the hospice, which marks the depth of the snowfall one 

 recent winter. The elevation of the hospi(;e is 75 75 feet. 

 It is magnificently situated, almost overhanging two glaciers 

 and the four lakelets which form the watershed. Lake 

 Nero, which is the upper one, often in rainy weather over- 

 fiows at both ends ; if northwards, its waters form the 



