9 



dry moorland or wet marshy ground, covered with heath, sedges, 

 and sphagna, huge boulders lie scattered in great profusion on the 

 slopes, by the streams and lakes, which either have been rent 

 from the precipices by the snows and torrents of winter, or 

 have been conveyed by former glaciers to the lower grounds in the 

 valleys. And probably a still more characteristic feature of it is 

 the moraines of all sizes which occur towards the mouths of 

 these lateral glens, as mementoes of the existence of the olden 

 glaciers, and which are very numerous and striking in the glens 

 of the Garrachory and Guisachan on the west side of the mountain. 

 The vegetation of this zone is characterised chiefly by the 

 abundance of the more social flowering and flowerless plants, 

 being otherwise of a rather composite nature, consisting as 

 already stated of a flora partly peculiar to itself, and partly 

 derived from the upper and lower tracts. And, indeed, many 

 lowland plants, familiar to us all, ascend even into the mid- 

 alpine zone, in more sheltered spots, and mingle themselves 

 with their alpine sisters, stretching from the sea shore to the 

 mountain corries, from the margin of the German Ocean to the 

 lochans of Ben Macdhui. 



Now these general observations upon the vegetation of one of 

 the loftier mountains of Great Britain, in connection with its 

 physical characteristics, are, after making due allowance for 

 diversity of situation and consequent exposure, of height and 

 consequent temperature, of mineralogical structure and con- 

 sequent natural features, equally applicable to those of the rest 

 of the Scottish Highlands, as also of north England and Wales. 

 The alpine plants, especially of the two latter, are certainly more 

 restricted in number, and some plants are found in the one region 

 which are wanting in the others, but this is just what constantly 

 happens on any two or three mountains standing in immediate 

 propinquity to each other in the same tract. Hence, were you 

 thoroughly to have explored all these alpine regions, and 



