434 BOTANICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



several kinds of distribution : 1. The seeds are constantly being carried down 

 anew by the waters, and the individuals which germinate are, therefore, only 

 accidental inhabitants of the drift on the banks, not having any fixed locality, 

 e. g. on the Iller. Campanula ceespitosa, Hutchinsia alpina, &c. 2. Other 

 alpine plants, which also grow upon the Alps themselves, on the drift of the 

 rivers, again meet with the conditions necessary for their existence in the 

 elevated plains : hence they constitute a permanent formation there, e. g. 

 Myricaria, Salix daphnoides, and Epilobium rosmarinifolium. 3. Other plants 

 of the alpine flora occur in the plain of the peat-moors, far distant from 

 the present alpine rivers, distributed socially, e. g. Bartsia alpina, Primula 

 auricula, Gentiana acaulis, in large masses on the bogs of Upper Bavaria, 

 and Veratrum album also in Upper Swabia. On the Alps, part of these plants 

 grow in totally different localities; yet, according to the opinion of the 

 author, there is no doubt that, like those above mentioned, they emanated 

 from the Alps, although the conditions under which these depositions occurred 

 cannot now be ascertained. In this respect, he declares that Zuccarini's 

 view is a very hazardous hypothesis, who supposes that the first seeds were 

 carried down in remote ages by the same rivers which filled up the whole of 

 the tertiary plain with alpine Molasse, and gave rise to the continent. This 

 view is inadmissible, because the phenomenon of the occurrence of the alpine 

 plants in the peat-moors is evidently the same as that which is now going on 

 in the north of Germany, where e. g. Primula farinosa, Swertia perennis, and 

 Salix daphnoides are met with under the same conditions. The humous 

 pasture-soil of the Alps is not so entirely different from peat, nor the climate 

 of Upper Bavaria so very different from that of Mecklenberg, as regards 

 many plants, as to render inadmissible every explanation of this simultaneous 

 growth of individual species in remote plains and on the mountains, by means 

 of the soil and climate : we need not then hypothetically devise any geolo- 

 gical causes. Are not aerial currents sufficient to convey the minute seeds 

 of the Gentianese, or the cotton of a willow, to all those parts of Germany, 

 nay, even of Europe, where the climate and soil permit their germination 

 and growth ? What their original locality was, whether a plain or a moun- 

 tain, appears to me an idle question, because it is incapable of scientific 

 solution. 4. The same applies to all those alpine plants which have attained 

 any extent of diffusion in the south-east corner of Upper Swabia, e. g. Rho- 

 dodendron ferrugineum, Campanula barbata, Streptopus amplexi/olius, &c. 

 Mohl considers that these are the original plants of Upper Swabia, and that 

 their origin is not to be looked for in the Alps ; this view will appear totally 

 untenable to every one who is acquainted with the botanical relations of the 

 Alps, from personal observation, although we are not in a condition to ascer- 

 tain how they arrived at their present locality. The latter point appears 

 simple to me, when we recollect that the greater number of these plants 

 thrive also on the Sudeten and other remote mountains, and thus probably 



