554 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
in ordinary cases from pruning shrubs very near the ground. The 
general appearance proper to the plant is thus effaced in some 
respects, and replaced by the physiognomy belonging to Alpine 
vegetation. These plants are generally of the arborescent kind, 
like the Willows, whose roots creep along the ground. The 
more elevated they are, the more scattered and impoverished 
is the vegetation, until, at the foot of the rocks, it only appears in 
the form of lichens, whose crust differs little from the monotonous 
tint of their own surface. When the limit of eternal snow is 
reached, organised life can no longer exist. 
Mount Ventoux, in Provence, presents us with an interesting 
application of the same facts. This mountain rises abruptly from a 
_ plain, the temperature of which may be compared with that of Sienna, 
Brescia, or Venice, while the summit of the mountain approaches 
the climate of Sweden, on the borders of Lapland. To ascend 
its sides and reach the summit, is as if we had actually traversed 
nineteen degrees of latitude, or from 44° to 63°. Professor Charles 
Martins has published an interesting accoutit of the vegetation of 
this mountain. ‘ Mount Ventoux,” says the learned Professor of | 
Montpellier, “presents a succession of well-defined botanical regions, 
each characterised by the presence of plants which are wanting on 
the others. These regions are six in number upon the southern — 
slopes, and five on its northern side. 
“‘ Ascending the southern slope, its base, in respect to its vegeta- 
tion, is like that of the valley of the Rhone. All the plants of the 
_ plains are found in the region at the foot of the mountain, and they 
are well characterised by two trees—the Aleppo Pine and the Olive. 
Both belong to the basin of the Mediterranean, round which they 
form a girdle, only interrupted by the delta of the Nile. The- 
Aleppo Pine is found upon all the hills which lie at the southern 
foot of Mount Ventoux, but ceases at the height of fourteen hun- — 
dred feet above the level of the sea. The Olive ascends a little 
higher, but ceases also at sixteen hundred. Under these trees we 
meet with all the species which characterise the vegetation of Pro- 
vence. The Kermes Oak, the Rosemary, the Spanish Broom, — 2 
and Dorycinium suffraticasm. ‘A narrow zone scarcely exceeding ® | 
hundred and eighty feet succeeds to this, which is characterised 
by the evergreen oak. Among the under-shrubs we find the wage 
