244 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



find " a slanting Sphagnum bog," in which grow some very 

 alpine-looking shrubs;" our old friend the Whortleberry 

 ( Vaccimuwi} for instance, and an Andromeda j a Pleroma, 

 and a plant of the Melastoma tribe, called Lavoisiera im- 

 bricata, " remarkable for its large flowers and small leaves/' 

 which are delicately fringed and laid close over each other. 

 And growing amongst the moss, " in great profusion," we 

 greet with a sensation of pleasure a Butterwort (Utricularia) , 

 with heart-shaped leaves and purple flowers. 



A steep ascent covered with low shrubs surmounts this 

 Sphagnum bog. This accomplished, our toil is at an end, 

 and we may enjoy at leisure the cool refreshing air and 

 soothing silence, whilst our eye first contemplates the " little 

 flower-garden" which here surrounds us, a pretty Fucfoia, 

 in full flower, trailing over the bare rocks; a handsome 

 Amaryllis, growing in the clefts, and numerous flowering 

 shrubs on all sides, and then wanders on over the inter- 

 minable "mass of conical-shaped hills" which everywhere 

 cover the country below. 



Of the nature of the vegetation in this lower country we 

 ought next to get some notion. So far as we have seen at 

 present, not one of all the different lands we have visited 

 in the course of our various wanderings appear to possess 



