Transition to the High Mountains of Tropical Africa. 525 
with in the grass-region above 2,900 m. Of a L uzula about 25-bo cm. 
high, I saw here smaller specimens with leaves 3 mm. wide, which are very 
much like a Luzula spicata , (L.) DC., such as is found on the Schneekoppe, 
Riesen-Gebirge — the more so when exceptionally the inflorescence happens 
to be not erect but slightly pendulous. Afterwards, in the same meadow 
as well as on the grassy slopes above 2,900 m. up to 3,100 m., I found other 
forms with taller stems (up to 70 cm.) and wider leaves (5-10 mm.). 
Between these extremes noted there exist all intermediate forms, just as 
one may find specimens of Luzula of 5-40 cm. in height and with leaves 
from 1-3 mm. wide growing closely together in the same range of 
the Alps. 
Great variation is shown also in the foliation of the stem by the Luzula 
of the Kilimanjaro. Some of them have the uppermost leaf about 15— 
20 cm. below the inflorescence, this leaf being narrow-linear, only about 
5 cm. long by 1 mm. wide ; in other cases, the uppermost leaf is 2-3 mm. 
wide, up to 10 cm. long, closely beset with long hairs at the lower margin, 
and also borne nearer to the inflorescence : such specimens being very 
similar to L. spicata , (L.) DC., var. simensis, Hochst. 
Besides, there are to be found specimens about 15-20 cm. high not 
yet fully developed. Their stem is completely covered by the sheathing 
leaves which, together with the bracts, overtop the crowded inflorescence, 
still about 3 cm. long ; these leaves being long-pilose at the edge, the 
inflorescence is completely enclosed by the spreading hairs. Such speci- 
mens had been described as L. Volkensii by Prof. Buchenau. By studying 
the specimens collected by myself and Prof. Volkens and comparing them 
with L. spicata , (L.) DC., observed by me repeatedly in Northern and 
Southern Europe, I obtained the following results : 
Luzula spicata is to be found in the whole arctic and sub-arctic belt, 
in Scotland, the Riesen-Gebirge, the Jura, the Auvergne, the Cevennes, 
from the Pyrenees through the Alps to the Carpathian Mountains ; also 
in the Sierra Nevada, Corsica, Sardinia, Albania, the Pindus, Balkan 
Mountains, Thracia, on Mount Olympus, Bithynia, and the mountains of 
Pontus, Mount Ida, Mount Argaeus, Cappadocia, at 3,200 m., more- 
over in the Altai and Alatan Mountains, in Turkestan, the Cashmere at 
4,200 m. In North America beyond the arctic region, it is found on 
the White Mountains, on the Rocky Mountains of Montana at 3,000 m., 
and of Colorado at 4,000 m. By comparing specimens from these 
localities, it is evident that the same forms of Luzula spicata are produced 
in far distant localities, and that the same region produces very different 
forms. I have myself collected forms with leaves 2-3 cm. long and 1 mm. 
wide, and with inflorescences 6-8 mm. long, at the North Cape as well as 
in Vallde d’Eynes, Pyrenees. 
But in the same locality in the Pyrenees specimens may also be seen 
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