144 Analyses of Books. (Feu. 
primula minima, campanula alpina, gentiana frigida, dianthus 
alpinus, and serratula pigmza which is the most singular of them 
all. It is the largest plant which is to be found in these high 
regions, and was found by Wahlenberg most abundantly on Kahl- 
bachergrat at the height of 7141 feet above the level of the sea. 
These plants in general differ from other alpine plants by their 
spongy nature. ‘Their spindle-shaped roots look like a sponge with 
vascular threads passing through it. The alpine region reaching 
from the boundary of the mughus to the snow line, an interval of 
2558 feet, or extending to 8526 feet above the level of the sea, 
may be divided into two parts. ‘The lower portion of it contains 
the above-mentioned plants, together with empetrum, vaccinium 
uliginosum, and salix retusa; but the upper portion, beginning at 
6927 feet above the level of the sea, is quite barren. The cliffs 
and rocks are more destitute of plants than any alpine regions pre- 
viously seen by Wahlenberg; and, what is singular, they are no 
less destitute of snow. Nothing is to be seen but naked cliffs, or 
heaps of loose stones, destitute of all other vegetation except black 
lichens, with which they are covered. 
It is not less singular that the snow line should be so much higher 
on the Carpathians than the Alps. Mons Pilatus, in Switzerland, 
only 6927 feet above the level of the sea, is covered with perpetual 
snow ; whereas not one of the peaks of the Carpathian mountains 
is covered with perpetual snow, though the great Lomnitzerspitze is 
8464 feet above the level of the sea. Snow lies, indeed, during 
the whole year in some of the gullies and chasms of these moun- 
tains, and there is a kind of a glacier at Eisthalerspitze, owing to 
this cause. Wahlenberg is disposed to place the snow line on the 
Carpathians at the height of 8526 feet above the level of the sea, 
which is higher than any of the Carpathian mountains. This 
superior elevation of the snow line in these mountains, notwith- 
standing their being ina higher latitude than the Swiss Alps, Wah- 
lenberg considers as owing to the prevalence of the hot winds from 
the plains of Hungary; for Hungary exhibits by far the greatest 
plain in Europe, and it lies so far to the south that the heat in 
summer is very considerable. This wili be evident from the fol- 
lowing table, exhibiting the annual temperature at the Buda ob- 
servatory drawn up by Wablenberg from the observations kept at 
that place. The degrees are those of the centigrade thermometer ; 
but } have added a column, exhibiting the mean of the months 
according to Fahrenheit’s scale, for the accommodation of the 
reader :-— 
