The geography of plants.

Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The geography of plants. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    13,441 leet; on the mountains of Caucasus, 10,602 feet; on the Appenines, 9,231 feet ; on the Swiss Alps, 8,500 feet; on the moun- tains of Norway and Sweden, 5,019 feet; in Iceland, 2,642 feet; at the North Cape, 2,275 feet; while, near the pole itself, it is nearly on the sea level, snow and ice being there per- petual. There are, however, a few partial ex- ceptions to this rule. The volcano of Arequipa, which rises to an elevation of 18,000 feet above the level of the sea, shows but a very little snow on one side of its highest point. In the Himalayan Mountains, in the Nutro Pass, at a height of 16,840 feet, there is no permanent snow. The whole western part of the Himalayas is as high as from 12,000 to 18,000 feet, and yet but a very little snow is seen there, and the vegetation ascends almost as high as 16,000 feet. It will be evident, therefore, on a moment’s consideration, that even at the equator itself, in the midst of the torrid zone, a mountain of sufficient height may have every variety of climate at its foot, graduating into temperate in its higher regions, and this, by degrees, passing into arctic, and even a polar temperature at its summit. Our survey of the vegetation of these various climes will have prepared us already to antici- pate most of those which distinguish the various regions which succeed one another as we ascend. Our notice of each will, therefore, be very brief. We may just remark, that in some of the Andes, the whole of these regions may be seen