556 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
The herbaceous plants of this region are the same asin the region of 
Beeches, which nearly all attain the limit of the Pines. In addition 
to the common Juniper, resting on the soil, as it always does, on 
high mountains, where the weight of the snow crushes it all the 
winter ; we find the mountain Germander (Veronica montana) and 
the Tufted Saxifrage (S. cespitosa), which is found on the loftiest 
ridges of the Alps. 
“Tts flora thus teaches us, in the absence of the baremeter, that 
we have reached the Alpine region of Mount Ventoux, and that the 
region of aborescent vegetation has disappeared. But here the 
botanist will be delighted to find the flora of Lapland or Iceland, 
and of Spitzbergen also. In the Alps this region extends to the line 
of perpetual snow, the home of eternal winter. But as Mount Ven- 
toux is only six thousand three or four hundred feet high, the 
summit only extends to the lower zone of the Alpine regions in the 
Alps and Pyrenees. At this point all trees have disappeared, but 
a crowd of small plants expand their corollas on the stony surface. 
Among them the orange-flowering Poppy, the Violet of Mount 
Cenis, the blue-flowered Astragalus, and quite at the summit, the 
Meadow Grass of the Alps, Gerard’s Euphorbia and the Common 
Nettle, which is generally found wherever man fixes his dwelling. 
A chapel has been built on the summit of the mountain since 
the ascent of Petrarch. But it is not on the south terminal 
summit, that the botanist will seek for the Alpine plants charac- 
teristic of the loftier regions. It is on the northern declivities, 
on the rocks exposed to the glacial north winds, nearly deprived 
of the sun during long months, and covered with snow from 
June. These I have surveyed as I would survey an old friend.. The 
Purple Saxifrage (8. oppositifolia) was the first plant I recognised ; 
I had gathered i it on the summit of the Reculet, the loftiest ridge of 
the Jura, and upon all the summits of the Alps which reached or 
passed the limits of perpetual snow. When I put foot for the first 
_ time on the icy shores of Spitzbergen, the Purple Saxifrage was 
among the first plants which attracted my attention ; for here is 
found, on the shore of the sea, the cold summers and the melting © 
snow of the summits which crown the Alps and the Pyrenees. 
Upofi Mount Ventoux other Saxifrages, equally Alpine, surround : : 
_ it. The blue bell-shaped flowers of — Allioni raised eee a 
