108 



CAAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



herring- broiled. I have a fine old motherly-looking- cat, who is never 

 allowed to come near my " sanctum sanctorum but whenever / ring 

 the bell for the removal of my tea-table, she starts up before the servant, 

 and waits on the staircase for her morsel. This only takes place when 

 my egg, or herring-, is ordered ; and she eats the egg-shell with quite as 

 much relish as the herring-bones : if I have neither egg nor herring-, 

 the sound of the bell has no charms for her, and she does not even stir 

 from her fire-side. 



I can readily imagine her finding out the herring, but cannot see 

 how she can detect the eg-g-, which she runs up stairs for with such 

 glee. — From a great admirer of Nature, and of your valuable labours. 



S. 



Shreivshury. 



Effects of mountain heights on plants. — M. Gay, in his 

 recent interesting tour among the Cordilleras, discoverd many beau- 

 tiful and rare species of Baccharis, Loasea, Alstrozmeria, and, ec above 

 all," he says, " those charming Mutisia which exhibit this singular 

 phenomenon." The tendrils with which these plants are usually fur- 

 nished, becoming useless in these cold regions, unprovided with shrubs 

 or bushes, change into real leaves, organs of such great utility to alpine 

 plants. I have also remarked that the plants which are herbaceous 

 in the plains, become here entirely ligneous ; and that several trees, 

 especially the Escallonia, instead of assuming that forked appearance 

 which characterises it, becomes stunted, creeping along the rocks, and 

 thus offering less surface to the cold, with which the wind is charged 

 in passing over these numerous and immense glaciers. But another 

 observation which I have also made among these cold regions, is still 

 more interesting ; it is the form of imbricated leaves, which the greater 

 portion of the vegetables assume — those genera even whose habitual form 

 seems to be entirely contrary to this disposition. Thus, the leaves of 

 the Triptilions, which are so lax and small in the lower regions, be- 

 come here extremely hard and tough, closely imbricating the stalk, and 

 even the flowers of these beautiful plants ; the Mutisia, which is nearly 

 devoid of leaves, when at the side of the mountains, produces at their 

 summit a considerable number. The Violets here have not that ele- 

 gant form which we observe in those lower down, but are found under 

 a form altogether different ; they represent a rosette, which may be 

 compared to that of a Sedum, with this difference, that the leaves, in- 

 stead of being almost vertical, are in these alpine violets entirely hori- 



