Abstract
MR. JOSIAS BRAUNS exhaustive account of the vegetation at the snow-line in the south-eastern (Rhætian-Lepontine) Alps forms a valuable contribution to bur knowledge of the plant-ecology of the Swiss Alps. The area includes, roughly speaking, the country from the St. Gothard to the Engadine. The text consists of two parts. The first is a consideration of the vegetation in relation to external conditions, with a detailed description of the plant-associations. The zone under consideration is defined as that in which the summer heat just suffices to melt the annual heavy snow-fall on level areas; its altitude ranges from 2960 metres on the Bernina chain to 2650 metres in the St. Gothard group. It lies above the region of close turf, and forms a part of the open rock region. Within t the author distinguishes three secondary zones: (i) the “Pionierrasengurtel”, the isolated outposts, so to say, of the turf-flora, forming patches in wind-sheltered places or on sunny spots; (2) the “Dicotyledonous zone”, characterised mainly by cushion-forming Dicotyledonous plants; and (3) the “Thallophyte-zone” of rock-inhabiting lichens. The principal natural formations in the first zone are the Curvuletum, of which Carex curvula is a characteristic component, and the Elynetum, in which Elyna myosuroides predominates. Here, too, are found the last traces of the influence of man and his domesticated animals, indicated by luxuriance of Poa alpina. The last chapter of the first part deals with the fauna of the area, which comprises ninety-one species, mainly insects and spiders.
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Plant-Life at the Snow-Line 1 . Nature 94, 39 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/094039a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/094039a0