In the Glarus Alps the odorous crimson tufts of the _Kammblume_ are discovered in a profusion which rejoices and astonishes the traveller. The yellow-blossomed _ragwort_ spreads its stem over the rugged mountain-sides in every Alpine district. But next in fame and beauty to the gentians,--which is, _par excellence_, the mountain-flower,--must be placed the _edelwein_, celebrated by Kobele and other famous poets, and growing in almost every part of the Alps from Dauphiné to the Dolomites. For further details respecting a most interesting branch of botany, we refer the reader to the two works already named, and he will find that the barrenest, stoniest slope of the Alpine rocks, the bleak recesses where the ice river has its origin, and the rugged ledge where the pitiless winds seem to expend their wildest fury, have their objects of grace and beauty,--their gentle and ever-welcome evidence of the Divine love, the Divine wisdom, and the Divine power, as exercised for the delight of man in the remotest wildernesses of the earth. The love of God is everywhere. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 93: "Nature," vol. i. p. 543.] [Footnote 94: Flammarion, "Les Merveilles Celestes," pp. 160, 161.] INDEX. "Academy," the, quoted, 369-371. Achtysia, the genus, characteristics of, 353. _Aeshna grandis_, described, 178; _forcipata_, 178, 179. _Agaricus Cæsareus_, the, description of, 333, 334. Agarics, varieties of, characterised, 335, 336. Agarions, the, general characteristics of their form, 79. _Agarion virgo_, the, described, 179. Alps, the, an excursion among, 256-260. Alpine snail, the, remarkable transparency of, 71. _Amanita muscaria_, the, described, 328-330; its poisonous properties, 331-333. _Amanita solitarius_, the, description of, 331. Amphibia, the, number of species of, 361, 362. Anaximander, the author of the "Uranometria," his enumeration of the stars, 25. Ancients, the, their notion of the earth's shape, 104-107. Anemones, the, blossoming time of, 157, 158; their sensitiveness to atmospheric changes, 158; varieties of, 159; references to, by Drayton, 159-161. Animal life, distribution of, 357, 366. Antipodes, the, existence of, believed in by the ancients, 107; proved by Columbus, 108, 109. Arabs of the desert, the, their nomenclature for the stars, 22, 23. Aratus, the author of "Phenomena," quoted, 22. Arctic vole, the, discovery of, by M. Hugi, 50, 51; described by its discoverer, 51; examined and named by M. Martins, 51, 52. Arcturus, the star, its colour, 23. Argesilaus, the author of the "Uranometria," his enumeration of the stars, 25. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, his theory of the globe's sphericity, 106; on the mole's want of sight, 267. Articulata, the, number of the species of, 362, 363.