PROF. MARTINS : VEGETATION OF SPITZBERGEN. 



203 



Of the eighty-seven flowering plants there are fifty printed in italics 

 found also on the Faulhorn. 'Now, the latter being an isolated summit 

 opposite the Bernese Alps, the other an islet, in a circle forming part of Mont 

 Blanc, and consequently under very different physical conditions, we may 

 conclude that these two Florulte are a good representation of the Alpine 

 vegetation at its highest limit below what is commonly called the 

 eternal snows. Amongst these eighty-seven species we only find five which 

 make a portion of the Spitzbergen Flora, viz : — Ranunculus glacialis. Carda- 

 mine hellidifolia, Gemstium alpinum, Arenaria hijiora, and Erigeron uni- 

 fiorus, about the same proportion as we have at the Faulhorn ; but there are 

 twenty-four which are found in Lapland. To sum up, the summit of the 

 Faulhorn and the Jardin have fifty plants in common. The proportion of 

 Lapland species is thirty per cent, on the Faulhorn, and twenty-eight per 

 cent, at the J ardin, or about a third of the whole ; but in both localities the 

 Spitzbergen plants only form five per cent, of the total number. Let us also 

 repeat that none of these plants belong to the arctic or circumpolar flora. 

 This flora of the Alps (of a lower altitude than the eternal snows) corres- 

 ponds then to that of JSTorthern Lapland, in the environs of Altenfiord, for 

 example, * so that in order to find a vegetation analogous to that of Spitz- 

 bergen, we must ascend still higher in the Alps, above the snow limit. 



In the midst of the glaciers on the northern side of Mont Blanc, is a 

 small chain of isolated rocks, forming an islet in the midst of the icy sea, 

 which surrounds them. At their highest part, they separate the glaciers des 

 Bossons from that of Taconnay ; are 800 metres (2626 feet) above the 

 Montague de la Cote, and two kilometres (6560 feet) from the Pierre de 

 TEchelle, the two nearest points where any vegetation is found. They run 

 from N.N.E. to S.S.W. and their lowest point is 3050 metres ( 10,014 feet) 

 above the level of the sea ; their highest, called by De Saussure " Hochc'r de 

 I'heureux Retour," is 3470 metres (11,393 feet). These rocks are formed of 

 vertical layers of schistose protogine, amongst which the plants find shelter 

 and soil for their growth formed by the decomposition of the rock. The 

 ascents of Mont Blanc by Marckam Shervill, 27th August, 1825; Auldjo, 

 8th August, 1827 ; and Martin-Barry, 17th September, 1834, fixed the 

 number of plants then known to grow here at eight. I have visited the 

 place three times, — the 31st July, 1844, — 2nd September, 1844, — 28th 

 July, 1846, — and I explored principally, and not without peril, the escarp- 



* See my " Yoyage botaiiique le long des Cotes septentrionales de Norvege" ; and 

 Anderson Conspectus vegetationis Lapponicse," 1846. 



