6. Next come the snowy alps, where are patches of snow that never melt. The bare places between still produce a few dark shrubby plants, such as Empetrum nigrum, but destitute of berries, Andromeda tetragona and hypnoides, as well as Diapensia lapponica. Green precipices exposed to the sun are decorated with the vivid azure tints of Gentiana tenella and nivalis, and Campanula uniflora, accompanied by the yellow Draba alpina. Colder and marshy situations, where there is no reflected heat, produce Pedicularis hirsuta and flammea, with Dryas octopetala. This
zone extends to 200 feet below the limits of perpetual and almost uninterrupted snow.
7. Beyond it perpetual snow begins to cover the greatest part of the ground, and we soon arrive at a point where only a few dark spots are here and there to be seen. This takes place on the Alps of Quickjock at the elevation of 4100 feet above the sea; but nearer the highest ridge, and particularly on the Norway side of that ridge, at 3100 feet. Some few plants, with succulent leaves, are thinly scattered over the spongy brown surface of the ground, where the reflected heat is strongest, quite up to the line of uninterrupted snow. These are Saxifraga stellaris, rivularis and oppositifolia, Ranunculus nivalis and glacialis, Rumex digynus, Juncus curvatus[18] and Silene acaulis. The mean temperature at the boundary of perpetual snow is +0,°4 of Celsius, (32¾ of Fahrenheit).
8. Above the line of perpetual snow, the cold is occasionally so much diminished, that a few plants of Ranunculus glacialis, and other similar ones, may now and then be found, in the clefts of some dark rock rising through the snow. This happens even to the height of 500 feet above that line. Further up the snow is very rarely moistened. Yet some umbilicated Lichens (Gyrophoræ), &c., still occur in the crevices of perpendicular rocks, even to the height of 2000 feet above the line of perpetual snow. These are the utmost limits of all vegetation, where the mean temperature seems to be +1,°1 of Celsius (30 of Fahrenheit). The Snow Bunting, Emberiza nivalis, is the only living being that visits this elevated spot.
INDEX.
A.
- Abo, ii. [230].
- Acer platanoides, ii. [227].
- Aconite, yellow, i. 36.
- Aconitum lycoctonum, i. 36, 47, 138, 278. ii. [79], [123], [277].
- Adam and Eve, i. 28.
- Adoxa moschatellina, i. 37.
- Agaricus, i. 151, 152, 177. ii. [158].
- Agrostis arundinacea, ii. [228].
- —— rubra, ii. [91].
- Agues, i. 29, 180.
- Aira alpina, ii. [279].
- Aland, ii. [233].
- Alca Torda, i. 64, 65.
- Alder, hoary-leaved, i. 48, 51. ii. [277].
- Alnus incana, ii. [277].
- Alopecurus geniculatus, ii. [92].
- Alps, Lapland, i. 283-322. ii. [1]-81, [257].
- —— Dr. Wahlenberg's observations to determine their height, ii. [272].
- Amanita, ii. [158].
- Amusements of the Laplanders, ii. [50]-58.
- Anas arctica, i. 65.
- Andromeda cærulea, i. 272. ii. [278].
- —— hypnoides, i. 320. ii. [280].
- —— polifolia, i. 23, 188, 189.
- —— tetragona, ii. [28], [29], [280].
- Anemone Hepatica, i. 11, 32. ii. [228].
- —— ranunculoides, i. 11.
- —— vernalis, i. 15.
- Angelica Archangelica, i. 171. ii. [60], [108], [278].
- —— sylvestris, i. 171, 316. ii. [76].
- Angermanland, i. 48.
- Animals of the alps, ii. [82], [83].
- Anthericum calyculatum, i. 257.
- Apis terrestris, i. 159.
- Apple-trees, i. 61.
- Arabis thaliana, i. 33.
- Aranea palustris, }
- —— riparia, } i. 258.
- Arbutus alpina, ii. [278].
- —— Uva ursi, i. 7, 23, 250.
- Ardea cinerea, ii. [255].
- Arena Glarea, i. 7, 16, 32, 82, 123, 166.
- —— mobilis, i. 16.
- Artemisia vulgaris, ii. [201].
- Arum, i. 200.
- Arundo Calamagrostis, ii. [90].
- —— Phragmites, ii. [275].
- Ash, i. 68.
- Aspen, i. 77, 179.
- Aspidium Filix-fœmina, ii. [227].
- Asplenium Trichomanes, i. 55.
- Astragalus alpinus, i. 160, 256, 366. ii. [2].
- —— leontinus, ii. [279].
- —— montanus, ii. [279].
- Azalea lapponica, i. 299. ii. [279].
- —— procumbens, i. 285. ii. [279].