UPPER ZONKS OF VEGETABLE LIFE 91 



which forms a stately blunt pyramid, with branches spreading 

 like the cedar, but not so stiff, and drooping gracefully on all 

 sides. Only at intervals other trees, such as willows, magnolias, 

 ashes, birches, poplars, apple and cherry trees, appear among 

 the thick pine-woods. The shrubbery and herbaceous plants of 

 this zone are representatives of the whole temperate flora of 

 Europe and America, intermixed with many Chinese, Japa- 

 nese, and Malayan plants in the richest variety. Several epi- 

 phjrtic orchids grow to an elevation of 10,000 feet, and large 

 spaces are frequently occupied by rhododendrons, which either 

 ascend from the temperate zone into the coniferous belt, or 

 first appear in the latter. But very few trees such as the 

 willows, birches, maples, and ashes, rise above the coniferous 

 forest, which reaches an upper limit of about thirteen thousand 

 feet. Most arboreal plants now appear only in a dwarfed 

 condition ; but the willows still rise in powerful growth over 

 the many Alpine shrubs, — juniperus, rosa, lonicera, potentilla, 

 rhododendron, — which cover the ground; and single specimens, 

 though low and stunted, are even found at a height of 16,000 

 feet. 



The whole zone between the extreme limits of arboreal vege- 

 tatio'n and the upper boundary of shrubs, generally occupies an 

 elevation of from 13,500 to 16,000 feet, and may justly be 

 called the region of the Alpine rhododendrons : these plants are 

 here by far the most numerous, and frequently belt the moun- 

 tains with a girdle of richly coloured blossoms, even to the verge 

 of the perennial snows. 



A large number of herbs, cruciferge, compositae, ranuncu- 

 laceae, grasses, sedges, green and bloom beyond the limits of 

 the shrubs, frequently forming luxuriant pastures, on which 

 numerous herds of yacks, or gruiitiiig-oxen, graze during the 

 summer. Many plants are even exclusively confined to these 

 enormous heights ; such as the Ehododendron nivale, the most 

 Alpine of woody plants, which Dr. Hooker found at 17,000 feet 

 elevation. Delphinium glaciale, and Arenaria rupifraga, a 

 curious species, forming great hemispherical balls, and alto- 

 gether resembling in habit the curious balsam-bog of the 

 Falkland Islands, which thrives in similar scenes. While on 

 the summits of the Swiss Alps, lichens but sparely cover the 



