206 



A' A TURE 



[Dec. 31,1! 



across the Northern States into Canada. Thence it 

 crossed Hudson's Bay and Labrador, into Davis Strait. 

 Altering its course to south of east it passed the southern 

 point of Greenland on October 16, and two days 

 later, in lat. 55° N., long. 27" W., it was joined 

 by another disturbance, which seems to have formed 

 about October 9 in 20° N., 48° W. The junction of 

 the two storms was followed by a complete cessation of 

 progressive movement for a week (October 19 to 25), and 

 it was during this period was formed as a subsidiary the 

 gale which suddenly arrived over our south-eastern counties 

 upon the morning of October 24, completely upsetting 



the Meteorological Office forecasts of the previous night 

 The author quoted several records from ships, which 

 went to show that this secondary storm had not formed 

 until nearly midnight ; and that reports from outlying 

 coast-stations would not have enabled successful forecasts 

 to be issued befoi'e 3 a.m. on the 24th. The 8 a.m. obser- 

 vations for the Daily Weather Report show that with the 

 exception of Hurst Castle the winds on the northern side 

 of the Channel were moderate, but along the French 

 coast heavy gales were blowing. Ships' records indicate 

 that off Start Point a tnoderate easterly gale began at 

 6.20 a.m. ISv 8 a.m. a whole gale from S.E. was blowing 



Tracks of the Typhoon and Anticyclone of September and October 1882. The thick line shows the track of the typhoon, the thin hne that of the anticyclone. 

 The elates and the lowest aad liighest ascertained readings of the barometer for the day being given near the positions of the centres at Greenwich noon. 



to south-west of Portland, while off the Start at 8.30 a.m. 

 the wind veered to W.N.W. a strong gale. At 9 a.m. the 

 wind off Portland veered to W. and blew with terrific 

 violence. Further east, as far as the Downs, the wind 

 had by noon changed to W. and S.W., and increased 

 to a furious storm, with violent squalls and a terrible se.\. 

 As this gale passed away the primary moved into the Bay 

 of Biscay and entered France on the 27th. As in Japan 

 and America, its advance was marked by violent gales 

 and destructive floods over a very extensive area — from 

 Algeria northwards. The damage caused by the floods in 



England was serious, but trifling compared with the losses 

 in Southern and Central Europe, the destruction being 

 enormous. This typhoon was the principal contributor 

 in making October, 1SS2, by far the worst within living 

 memory. With this final eftbrt it seemed to have e.x- 

 pended its fury, and in crossing France and the Nether- 

 lands it gradually filled up. The last trace of the typhoon 

 was in the Baltic on November I, when it quietly dis- 

 persed, after covering over 14,000 nautical miles in 

 thirty-six days, the longest track hitherto followed day 

 by day. 



THE NIVAL FLORA OF SWITZERLAND 



TN the spring of 18S3 (the last year of his life), the 

 ^ eminent Swiss naturalist. Prof. Oswald Heer, having 

 finished his "Flora fossilis Arctica," resumed a work 

 with which he had been long occupied before — viz. the 

 preparation of a Nival Flora of Switzerland, in which he 

 proposed to give an account of all the plants found above 

 8000 feet in that country, and a comparison of these with 

 the Nival flora of other countries. This work, based on 

 very abundant material, was nearly completed before the 

 author's lamented death ; — he anticipated being able to 

 finish it in about eight days more had health allowed. 

 The work has now been published in full (as he left it) in 

 the Nouveaux Mkmoires de la Socictc Helvctique dcs 

 Sciences A'atitfel/es (vol. xxix. part i). The summary of 

 results of this research, which were communicated at a 

 gathering of Swiss naturalists in Zurich, we will here 

 reproduce. 



(i) We know at present in Switzerland 337 species of 

 flowering ]]lants which have been observed at from 8000 

 to 13,000 feet above the sea ; 12 of these species have 

 still been found above 1 2,000 feet. 



(2) All these species are found in the lowest division of 

 the Nival region, 8000 to S500 feet. Above S500 feet 

 there is no species which is peculiar to this height. 



(3) One-tenth of the species of the Nival region con- 

 sists of species of lowland flora, nine-tenths of moun- 

 tain plants. Most of the latter belong to the Alpine 

 region, and about a quarter of the species has its greatest 

 distribution over Sooo feet. These are the Nival plants 

 in the narrower sense. While the lowland plants and the 

 plants of the hilly and sub-.A.lpine region disappear at 

 about 9500 feet, the Nival plants, with a few Alpine 

 species, are the last children of the flora. 



(4) The mountain mass of Monte Rosa has the richest 

 Nival flora ; which here rises higher than in the Rhastian 

 Alps, and in the latter higher than in the Glarnisch Alps. 



(5) The majority of the species are distributed through- 

 out the whole region of the Alps ; only a small portion 

 is found exclusively in the east from Orteler to the 

 Gothard, or in the west from the Gothard to Savoy. 



(6) About half of the plants of the Nival region come 

 from the Arctic zone, and very probabi)' came over 

 Scandinavia to our region in the Glacial period, since 

 Arctic Europe has the largest number (140) of species 



