FLORA OF SERPENTINE AND LIMESTONE. 159 



the serpentine from the limestone country, not 

 merely from the peculiar bossy character and 

 pink colour of the hills of the former, contrasting 

 strongly with the abrupt and broken escarpments 

 and grey and yellow rocks of the latter, but also 

 from the disposition of the arborescent vege- 

 tation. On the serpentine usually pines only grew 

 and never in thick forest masses, but scattered, — 

 as it were, individually, — and as if they had been 

 planted in a quincunx arrangement. Where the 

 limestone was wooded — and in many parts it 

 bore great forests, — thick clustered oaks covered 

 a luxuriant underwood, interrupted by groves 

 of strawberry trees, and by clumps of lofty pines. 

 High in the mountains the pines prevailed over 

 the oaks, and higher still, the cedar-junipers 

 replaced them. In the region of the upland 

 slopes much of the mountain sides consist of 

 greenish sandstones probably intermediate in age 

 between the secondary and the distinctly tertiary 

 rocks. These were usually covered with dense 

 forests, consisting exclusively of pines, though on 

 the neighbouring limestone the oak was the 

 prevailing tree. 



The contrast between the vegetation of the 

 limestone and the serpentine was maintained 



