36 THE FOREST 



Besides some barren mosses several lichens grow on 

 the top, as Cladonia vermicularis, the yellow Lecidea 

 geographica and the orange L. miniata. 



At 18,300 feet Hooker found on one stone only 

 a fine Scottish lichen, a species of gyrophora, the 

 " tripe de roche " of Arctic voyagers and the food 

 of the Canadian hunters. It is also abundant in the 

 Scotch Alps. 



On the summit of Bhomtso, 18,590 feet, the 

 only plants were the lichens Lecidea miniata (or 

 Parmalia miniata) mentioned above, and borrera. 

 The first-named minute lichen is the most arctic, 

 antarctic, alpine, and universally diffused in the 

 world, and often occurs so abundantly as to colour 

 the rocks an orange red. 



The entire range of plant life, from the truly 

 tropical to the hardiest arctic, is now complete. As 

 we look back from the limit of perpetual snow we 

 see the whole great procession in a glance. We 

 have come across no African, nor South American, 

 nor Australian plants, so we have not seen anything 

 like the whole of plant life. But the range from 

 the tropic to the arctic has been complete and con- 

 tinuous. In no other region could we in so short a 

 space as a hundred miles — the distance from Bath 

 to London — see the entire range so fully represented. 



And actually seeing how vast is the range and 

 variety of plant life is a very different thing from 

 knowing that it exists ; seeing the flowers in the 

 flesh is altogether different from only reading de- 

 scriptions of them ; and seeing them in masses and 

 in their natural surroundings affects us quite dif- 



