318 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OP PLA.NTS. 



tanists ; and this occurs both within the tropics and in the 

 temperate zone, on fragments of rock which remain free 

 from snow and are probably warmed by open fissures. I have 

 already mentioned the Saxifraga Boussingaulti, which is found 

 at a height of 15,773 feet on the Chimborazo; in the Swiss 

 Alps the Silene acaulis, a clovewort or caryophyllea, has been 

 seen at a height of 11,382 feet. The former vegetates at 640, 

 the latter at 2621 feet above the respective local limits of 

 snow, heights which were determined when both the plants 

 were discovered. 



In our European Coniferous woods the Red Pine (or Nor- 

 way Spruce), and the White (or Silver) Pine show great 

 and remarkable variations as regards their geographical dis- 

 persion on the slopes of mountains. Whilst in the Swiss 

 Alps the Red Pine (Pinus picea, Du Roi, foliis compresso- 

 tetragonis ; unfortunately named by Linnaeus and by most 

 botanists of our time the Pinus abies!), forms the limit of 

 tree vegetation at the mean height of 5883 feet, and only 

 here and there does the lowly alder (Alnus viridis, Dec., 

 Betula viridis, Vill.), advance higher towards the snow- limit ; 

 the White Pine (Pinus abies, Du Roi, Pinus picea, Linn., foliis 

 planis, pectinato-distichis, emarginatis), has its limit, accord- 

 ing to Wahlenberg, about 1000 feet lower. The Red Pine 

 does not grow at all in Southern Europe, in Spain, the Apen- 

 nines, and Greece ; and, as Ramond remarks, it is only seen 

 on the slope of the northern Pyrenees at great heights, and is 

 entirely wanting in the Caucasus. The Red Pine extends 

 further to the north in Scandinavia than the White, which 

 latter tree appears in Greece (on the Parnassus, the Taygetus, 

 and the (Eta), as a variety with long acicular leaves, foliis 

 apice integris, breviter mucronatis, the Abies Apollinis of the 

 acute observer Link.* 



On the Himalaya the acicular-leaved form of trees is dis- 

 tinguished by the mighty thickness and height of the stem as 

 well as by the length of the leaf. The chief ornament of the 

 mountain range is the Cedar Deodwara (Pinus deodara, Roxb.), 

 which word is, in Sanscrit, dewa-da.ru, i.e. timber for the 

 gods, its stem being nearly from 13 to 14 feet in diameter. 

 It ascends in Nepaul to more than 11,700 feet above the 

 level of the sea. More than 2000 years ago the Deodwara 



* See Linncea, bd. xv. 1841, s. 529, and Endlicher's Synopsis Coni- 

 ferarum, p. 96. 



