I)R. JOHN U)WE ON WAVSIHE BOTANY IN NORWAY. 
635 
tho30 beautifully tinted clouds which were much discussed in 
‘ Xature’ a year or two ago. AVhen first observed, they appeared 
over the high mountains west of Vik, behind which the sun was 
setting. One mass of cirrus, just above the highest peak, was of 
a brilliant green colour, the margins being bright red. Another 
cloud of fish-bone form was also brilliantly coloured, each segment 
being tinged with prismatic colours. On walking a short distance 
away from the mountain, so as to bring the sun into view again, 
the colour was found to have all disajipeared ; but as soon as it set 
behind the Folgefond, the clouds which were directly over the 
mountains in the sun’s track ; were again splendidly tinted. On 
my way to Hull I noticed a very similar appearance on light cirrus 
clouds, which were directly above the point where the sun was 
setting, behind a dark bank of cumulus. 
The dark-red colour of the rocks which prevails throughout 
Norway is duo to a confervoid growth which covers them. When 
a portion of the rock is uncovered, as we saw it on the Eidfjord 
Vand, by the side of which a new road is being blasted, the rock 
appears as pale grey granite. During a wet season, as when I last 
saw these rocks, in 1874, tiny streams trickled down the perpendic- 
ular face of the clilf, and in these a free growth of green moss 
sprang up in bands a foot or two wide, and separated by narrow 
spaces of dark rock. The appearance produced was not unlike 
a forest of trees, between which one could see, on looking fi.xedly, 
a far perspective in the depth of the rock ; and it rei[uired no very 
vivid imagination to see stmnge and weird forms amongst the tree 
trunks. It is quite possible that some of the Norwegian stories of 
trollds and gnomes may have had their origin in a scene like this. 
This year all the bands of moss had disappeared, owing to the 
drought. 
Crossing the Eidfjord Vand, on the way to the Viiring Foss, some 
fine spikes of Saxi/ratja cotyledon were seen. A number of good 
species were noted on the journey, but the vegetation had suffered 
greatly by the drought, and there was not nearly the same profusion 
of dowel's Avhich I had seen formerly. Amongst those noticed were, 
Saxifratja nimlh^ S. Ktellnri.'i, S. muscoide.'^, S. opyo-dti folia, 
Pyrola nniliora, Ruhus t>axatilix, Ajmia jiyramidalix, Alnux incana, 
D.C., Epilohinm angudifoUum, Aaplenium stepientrionale, Sfruthi- 
opterix yennanica, and ilrenxis. Linneea horeali.-t was 
vor,. IV. ^ T T 
