239 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
covering of heather, where the soil, often turfy, is dotted with stagnant 
pools bounded by grasses and sedges with hard wiry leaves, and where 
animal life seems to have disappeared, the eye restlessly seeks afor the 
woods and the valleys whieh surround these deserts. Already at from 
1500 to 2000 feet in our latitude we have an image, feeble it is true, 
. of the upper region of the high mountains. The forests of Oak, and 
even of Beech, have almost disappeared ; for at this elevation they have 
nearly reached their highest limit. In the patches of copse and wood 
which reach some of the less elevated plateaux, the trees, the Oaks 
especially, are usually stunted in growth and loaded with bearded 
lichens. As to the Coniferze, they do not anywhere exist in a spon- 
taneous state. The botanist, when he reaches these heights, sets 
to work to seek the few alpine species which are here and there to be 
met with, and in finding them, feels himself happy in gathering plants 
which seem to carry him to the midst of the high mountains. The 
illusion is increased by a temperature so low that in some of the 
mountain gorges the thermometer sinks below the freezing-point every 
night for three quarters of the year. Fogs are frequent, and the north- 
east wind is so keen that the inhabitants have to surround their houses 
with lines of Beech-trees. "There is scarcely a more curious sight than 
some of these villages present, the houses swathed to their roofs in 
leafy greenery, the smoke of the chimneys alone revealing the existence 
of human habitations." 
In a few pages of introduction our author sketches out what has 
been done in the botanical exploration of the Ardennes from the year 
1806, when it belonged to France, and Lejeune was commissioned by 
the Prefect of the Department of the Ourthe to report respecting its 
botanical riches, up to the present time ; and he tells us what portions 
have been well explored by himself and others, and where further 
research is needed. Then follows a brief physical description of the 
tract, its boundaries, its geology, its streams, and its scenery. 'o 
want of a sufficient number of species to characterize an upper climatic 
region he has not divided the district into zones of altitude. The 
