350 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xix. 



stem of ice, and then, instead of slipping off as is ordinarily the 

 case, had gradually declined towards the west, bending the shaft 

 w^hich had formerly supported it into the form of a reversed ~). 

 The rock was touching the surface of the glacier, still adhering to 

 the ice-pedestal ; and this, although it had undergone crushing on 

 the inner curve and tension on the outer side, shelved no signs of 

 fracture. 



BOTANY. — The collections which were formed were undertaken 

 with the view of contributing to the knowledge of the Kange in Alti- 

 tude of species, and the remarks which follow have solely reference 

 to the extreme upper range of species in Equatorial South America. 



Examples of twenty Botanical Orders were obtained at 15,000 

 feet above the level of the sea and upwards, and twelve of these 

 touched or exceeded the height of 16,000 feet. In the Tables 

 upon pp. 352, 353 the altitudes are given, and the names of the 

 species so far as they have been identified, of the representatives 

 which attained the very greatest heights. These Tables, and the 

 Zoological ones which follow, include only such species as were 

 actually collected. 



Species of fifteen genera of Lichens were collected in the 

 interior of Ecuador,^ out of which eight (those marked by asterisks 

 in the footnote) were obtained at 15,000 feet or higher : examples 

 of twenty-six genera of Mosses were collected,^ twelve of which 

 were found at 15,000 feet and upwards : while out of fifty-eight 

 genera of Flowering Plants (collected exclusively in the interior), 

 fifty -nine species came from 14,000 feet or higher, and of these 

 thirty -five species reached or surpassed 15,000 feet, and twenty 



1 * Alectoria, Bceomyces, Cladonia, * Gyrophora, * Lecanora, * Lecidea, Leptogium, 

 * Neuropogon, * Parmelia, Physcia, RatnaUna, * Stereocaulon, Sticta, ^ JJmbilicaria, 

 and Usnea. 



^ * Andrecea, Aneura, * Bartramia, * Brachymenium, * Brentelia^ * Crypto^ 

 podium, Baltonia, Bicranum, * Bidymodon, * Grimmia, Hypnum, Lejeunia, 

 Macromitium, Metzgeria, * Mielichhoferia, 3fnium, Neckera, * Orthotrichum, Plagio- 

 chila, Porotrichum, * Racomitrium, Rhizogonium, Sematophyllum, * Splachnobryum^ 

 Th^ddimn, and * Webera. 



