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STEP UPON STEP. 



puissance; there, between 3500 and 6900 feet above the sea-level, 

 we meet with nearly all the plants peculiar to temperate climes, and 

 those which only belong to the northern lands. On the Himalayan 

 slopes, the pine and the cedar flourish at an elevation of 7500 feet. 

 Advancing from this limit, we soon encounter a great variety of 

 Rhododendrons, a shrub now well known in our European gardens, 



RHODODENDRONS OF THE HIMALAYA. 

 1. Rhododendron Pendulum. 2. Rhododendron Dalhousie. 3. Rhododendron Xivale. 



and highly prized for its ever green foliage and rich full bloom. It 

 thrives at the height of 12,000 feet; a few species even battle with 

 the elements at an altitude of 15,000 feet, but they are then only 

 stunted and crawling plants. With these are associated, at about 

 10,000 feet, the alder, the birch, and the willow. The plains are 

 covered, at the same time, with a prodigious host of Ranunculacese, 

 Compositse, Saxifrages, and Pinnalacese, to which succeeds all the 

 army of Lichens. Thus, then, it appears that the same laws deter- 



