IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 105 



Lachesis Lapponica and Murray's Encyclopedia of Geo- 

 graphy ; but in the latter work the notices of the botany of 

 Lapland are rather incongruously placed under the head 

 of Denmark. 



The same author, in his work, " De Climate et Vege- 

 tatione in Helvetia Septentrionali," disposes the plants of 

 the N. of Switzerland, between the rivers Rhine and Arola, 

 into six regions, comparing them with the floral regions of 

 Lapland above mentioned. He commences with the up- 

 permost, and instances several species occurring here and 

 there in denuded places above the proper line of perpetual 

 snow, as Empetrum nigrum and Vaccinium uliginosum. 

 The snow-line is considered to be at 8200 (Paris) feet. 

 His regions are thus : — 



1. (Sno.) The Subnival, or Higher Alpine Region is 

 that where patches of snow occur in shaded places, but 

 the surface generally speaking is free from it. Cherleria 

 sedoides, and other (non-British) species are instanced as 

 characteristic of the region ; but not growing close to the 

 snow patches. It extends about 1000 feet downwards 

 from the snow-line. 



2. (Alp.) The Lower Alpine Region extends from the 

 lowest perennial patches of snow to the upper limit of 

 trees. The appearance of Pinus Abies marks the lower 

 line of this region, which is rich in pasturage, and occupies a 

 zone of 1700 feet perpendicularly. (Pinus Abies appears 

 to cease where the temperature of the earth is 39°, at an 

 elevation of 5500 feet.) 



3. (Sub.) The Subalpine Region, extending between 

 the upper lines of Pinus Abies and Fagus sylvatica, is 

 subdivided by the upper line of P. Picea, supposed to 

 answer to that of P. sylvestris in Lapland, which on some 



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