- trasts of these forms of plants. Importance of the physiognomic
study of plants to the landscape painter 29-31, 200-203
Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. 33 to p. 210.
Organic forms, animal and vegetable, in the highest mountain regions
adjacent to the limit of perpetual snow in the Andes and the Alps;
insects carried up involuntarily by ascending currents of air. The
Hypudæus nivalis of the Swiss Alps. On the true elevation above
the sea reached by the Chinchilla laniger in Chili 33-35
Lecidias and Parmelias on rocks not entirely covered with snow;
some phænogamous plants also wander in the Cordilleras beyond
the limits of perpetual snow, as the Saxifraga boussingaulti, to
15770 English feet above the level of the sea. Groups of phænogamous
plants extend in the Andes to 13700 and 14920 English
feet above the sea; species of Culcitium, Espeletia, and Ranunculus;
small umbelliferous plants resembling mosses in appearance;
Myrrhis andicola and Fragosa arctioides 35, 36
Measurement of the height of Chimborazo, and etymology of the
name 36-39
On the greatest absolute heights which have yet been reached by any
human beings in either continent; in the Cordilleras and the
Himalaya, on the Chimborazo and the Tarhigang 40
Habits and haunts of the Condor (Cuntur in the Inca language), and
singular mode of capturing these powerful birds in an enclosure
fenced by palisades 40-44
Useful services rendered by the Gallinazos (Cathartes urubu and C.
aura) in purifying the air in the neighbourhood of human habitations;
these birds sometimes tamed 44, 45
