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THE CHARACTER rSTICS OF THE CATCASrS 43
get covered over very quickly with grass and flowers, which makes
them '
'— look pleasanter to borrow the phrase of an Irish peasant
discovered covering over with moss the stumps of his landlord's
trees, which he had illegally cut down. It is also useful to
the student of glacial oscillations ; for directly the ice begins to
advance, its motion is shown by the barrowfuls of unmistakably
raw rubbish it shoots over the grassy banks. Near the foot of the
Leksur Glacier I noticed a little island of vegetation on some
rocks covering the centre of the ice. It is possible, however,
that this may have been not an ordinary moraine, but .soil brought
down by an avalanche.
I have gathered flowering plants at a height of over 13,000 feet
on Ukiu. At this height the stalk and leaves are tiny, the blossoms
abundant and vivid in hue. Dr. Radde has described how he found
flowers at about the same height on Elbruz.' Thereupon
'
scientist '
a local
took occasion to point out the incredible character of his
statement. From the critic's point of view, it was an a priori im-
possibility for flowers to blossom above the snow-level. In the Alps I
have found Ranunculus glacialis in blossom on the final peaks of the
Cima di Castello and the Adamello, at over 11,000 feet, and gentians
and forget-me-nots, dwarfed to tiny specks of exquisite brightness,
on the southern ridge of the Basodino (10,500 feet). Probably
flowering plants will be found in the Caucasus at higher eleva-
tions than any that have yet been noted. The slopes above the
great Leksiu- Glacier, from 9000 to 10,000 feet, were green in
July, and the grass was enlivened with poppies, Anemone nar-
cissijlora, gentians, ranunculus, campanulas, myosotis, veronicas,
geraniums, framed by the darker foliage and great cream-coloured
blossoms of the Rhododendron caucasicum.
The general type of the vegetation is more luxuriant than on
the Alps. The giant Caucasian snowdrop, which we grow in our
gai'dens, is typical of the Caucasus. The species are larger, the
blossoms moi-e abundant, and near the snow perhaps somewhat
less brilliant in colouring ; whites and yellows —the colours in
' Die drei Langenhochthaler Imeritiens. Tiflis, 1867. My little specimens were unluckily
lost out of a potket-lmok : one was. I believe, a pyretlirum.