32 MADRONO [Vol. 1, 



These are the regional subdivisions of the Alps; in wandering* 

 from the Prealps to the Central Alps, we meet first limestone plants, 

 oceanic ones and low limits, then in the Central Alps limestone- 

 avoiding plants, continental ones and high limits. But still more 

 pronounced than these regional differences is the change in vegeta- 

 tion as we ascend toward the mountains from the lowlands. Switzer- 

 land, although a small country, contains within its boundaries all 

 the vegetations of Europe from the mild Mediterranean region to 

 Spitzbergen and Lappony ! We are able to wander through an ex- 

 tent of thirty degrees of latitude in the course of one day, in climb- 

 ing, for instance, from Siders in the hot valley of Wallis (1,450 ft.) 

 up to the Gornergrat near Zermatt (10,000 ft.). The change in veg- 

 etation is extremely gradual, but nevertheless we can divide it into 

 four well-defined zones, or belts. 



The first, comprising the Lowlands, extends to the upper limit 

 of the vineyard; above 1,500 or 2,000 feet the grape will not ripen; 

 only in Wallis, in the masses of the Pennine Alps, the vineyards 

 reach up to 4,000 feet. 



Then follows the light-green belt of the deciduous forests, the do- 

 main of deciduous trees, the mountain belt, or beech belt, surround- 

 ing like a garland the foot of the Alps, reaching to about 4,500 to 

 5,000 feet above the sea. 



And now we enter the dark-green coniferous belt, the subalpine 

 belt, where the Spruce (Picea excelsa Link), the Larch, and the 

 Arolla Pine form dense woods, reaching upward to the upper limit 

 of tree-growth. Here already alpine conditions of life begin to rule. 

 At 6.000 to 9,000 feet lies the tree limit. 



Above this belt begins the true alpine (the treeless) belt, the 

 kingdom of pastures and meadows, of rock, screes, snow and ice. 

 But the plant life has conquered the whole belt and climbs to the 

 highest peaks wherever a place exists free of snow. 



The extreme altitude at which a flowering plant has been found 

 in Switzerland is 14,250 feet above the sea-level ; it is the glacial but- 

 tercup (Ranunculus glacialis L.), which ascends to this altitude in 

 the Finsteraarhorn in the Bernese Oberland. Eight species 3 of flow- 

 ering plants exist above 13,200 feet, more than three hundred in the 

 whole snow-belt above the under limit of perennial snow. 



Still more resistant than the higher plants are the cryptogams, 

 especially the lichens; over one hundred kinds of these plants are 

 found above 11,300 feet, and six different kinds 4 cover the top of 



3 Ranunculus glacialis L. ; Achillea atrata L.; Androsace alpina (L.) Lam.; 

 Saxifraga aspera L. var. bryoides L. ; Sax. moschata Wulfen; Sax. muscoides 

 All.; Sax. bi flora All.; and Gentiana brachyphylla Vill. 



i Toninia conglomerata (Ach.) Zahlbr. ; Rhizocarpon geographicum (L.) 

 DC; Pamelia spec; Umbilicaria spec; Lecanora concolor Earn. var. angustata 

 (Arn.) Nyl., with the parasitical lichen Buellia leptoleptis Bagl. & Car. 



