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THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CAUCASUS 45
blossoms of the mountain rhododendron, we descend to the forests,
the upper limit of which may he put at from 7200 to 8000 feet.
The Caucasian woodlands present the vegetation of Central Europe
in its greatest perfecti(in and variety, together with an undergrowth
of flowers unique in its richness and profusion.
In a recently published volume, M. Levier, a Swiss botanist,
has depicted the forests of the Southern Caucasus with the
enthusiasm of an artist joined to the precision of a specialist.
His descriptions
will naturally carry more weight than any
words of mine, and I gladly avail myself
of his kind permission
to transfer to my pages
his account of the tirst excursion he
made among the hUls of the upper Skenis Skali. The ridge
the travellers ascended lies to the south of Cholur (3400 feet),
in the Skenis Skali valley, some twenty-four miles below the
sources of that river.
above the cultivated fields is the zone of the
'Immediately
underwood— rhododendrons, sweetbriar, hazels, crab apples, thorns,
mountain ashes ; this region and the environs of the village are
covered with tufts of a groundsel, with blossoms of rosy white.
Soon the true forest is reached, a forest of lofty deciduous trees,
where willows, hornbeams, aspens and oaks are interlaced with
enormous beeches, festooned with the white beards of the Usnea.
The birch appears, diminishing in size as one ascends until it
becomes little more than a bush. Nordmann's pines
are met at
first as isolated trees, then, gathering in imposing clusters and
o-roves, they form the predominant element in the forest, where
the underwood never entirely disappears.'
Some 3000 feet above Cholur, the travellers issued on a glade
of a fairy-like aspect.
'
It was a garden, but a garden of the gods.
In a vast clearing, an amphitheatre of which the walls were rocks
and pines, myriads of monkshoods, surpassing the height of a man
on horseback, displayed their blue and white flowers. Raised one
above the other and artistically grouped as if by the hand of a
skilful landscape gardener, they adorned a long hillside. A crowd
of other plants of the most diverse kinds disputed the soil with
them, pushing between the straight stalks of their rivals, and