elegant blossoms under the damp shade of the thickets.

Mr. Motley, who visited the mountain in the dry season, and paid
much attention to botany, gives the following list of genera of
European plants found on or near the summit: Two species of
Violet, three of Ranunculus, three of Impatiens, eight or ten of
Rubus, and species of Primula, Hypericum, Swertia, Convallaria
(Lily of the Valley), Vaccinium (Cranberry), Rhododendron,
Gnaphalium, Polygonum, Digitalis (Foxglove), Lonicera (Honey-
suckle), Plantago (Rib-grass), Artemisia (Wormwood), Lobelia,
Oxalis (Wood-sorrel), Quercus (Oak), and Taxus (Yew). A few of
the smaller plants (Plantago major and lanceolata, Sonchus
oleraceus, and Artemisia vulgaris) are identical with European
species.

The fact of a vegetation so closely allied to that of Europe
occurring on isolated mountain peaks, in an island south of the
Equator, while all the lowlands for thousands of miles around are
occupied by a flora of a totally different character, is very
extraordinary; and has only recently received an intelligible
explanation. The Peak of Teneriffe, which rises to a greater
height and is much nearer to Europe, contains no such Alpine
flora; neither do the mountains of Bourbon and Mauritius. The
case of the volcanic peaks of Java is therefore somewhat
exceptional, but there are several analogous, if not exactly
parallel cases, that will enable us better to understand in what
way the phenomena may possibly have been brought about.

The higher peaks of the Alps, and even of the Pyrenees, contain a
number of plants absolutely identical with those of Lapland, but