EHODODENDEON NIVALE 325 
There were also 
whole specimens of Bhododendron nivale from 18,000 feet, 
the loftiest of all shrubs, and hitherto of any known plant,^ 
but I have several species of plants from above that, curious 
half spherical balls of an Alsinea ^ growing in Thibet at 18,000 
feet, Hke our old friend Bolax.^ 
Indeed the Himalayan heights were full of new marvels. 
Donkiah is a wonderful place ; 19,200 feet is the altitude 
of the Pass, and plants to 200 feet of top. Lichens to all 
but 20,000 feet. Wait till you see my colored sketch of 
Thibet. Jorgensen's works are moonshine to mine. 
* This plant is described as follows in Hooker's Rhododendron Book: 
Rhododendron nivale. Hook. fil. 
Snow Bhododendron. 
The hard woody branches of this curious little species, as thick as a goose- 
quill, straggle along the ground for a foot or two, presenting brown tufts of 
vegetation where not half a dozen other plants can exist. The branches are 
densely interwoven, very harsh and woody, wholly depressed ; whence the 
shrub, spreading horizontally, and barely raised owo inches above the soil, 
becomes eminently typical of the arid stern climate it inhabits. The latest to 
bloom and earliest to mature its seeds, by far the smallest in foliage, and pro- 
portionately largest in flower, most lepidote in vesture, humble in stature, rigid 
in texture, deformed in habit, yet the most odoriferous, it may be recognised, 
even in the herbarium, as the production of the loftiest elevation of the surface 
of the globe, — of the most excessive climate, — of the joint influences of a scorch 
ing sun by day, and the keenest frost at night, — of the greatest drought followed 
in a few hours by a saturated atmosphere, — of the balmiest calm alternating 
with the whirlwind of the Alps. During genial weather, when the sun heats 
the soil to 150°, its perfumed foliage scents the air ; whilst to snow-storm and 
frost it is insensible, blooming through all, expanding its little purple flowers to 
the day, and only closing them to wither after fertilization has taken place. 
As the life of a moth may be indefinitely prolonged whilst its duties are unful- 
filled, so the flower of this little mountaineer will remain open through days of 
fog and sleet, till a mild day facilitates the detachment of the pollen and fecun- 
dation of the ovarium. This process is almost wholly the effect of the winds ; 
for though humble-bees and the ' Blues ' and ' Fritillaries ' (Polyommatus and 
Argynnis) amongst butterflies do exist at the same prodigious elevation, they 
are too few in number to influence the operations of vegetable life. 
The odour of the plant much resembles that of ' Eau de Cologne.' Lepidote 
scales generally rather a bright ferruginous-brown, wholly concealing the 
ramuli, foHage, &c. Leaves one-eighth to one-sixth of an inch long, pale green. 
Corolla one-third of an inch across the lobes. The nearest allies of this species 
are E. setosum and R. Lapponicum, from which latter it differs in its smaller 
stature and solitary sessile flowers. 
This singular little plant attains a loftier elevation, I believe, than any other 
shrub in the world. 
2 Arenaria rupifraga, Fenzl. 
3 Bolax glebaria, the Tussock grass of the Falklands. 
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