Its animals and plants have a special character suited to the peculiar climatal conditions, more closely allied to those of the adjacent northern Siberian tract than of the other bordering regions.
Many writers take the growth of grain as the characteristic of the mountain region; but so many varieties of all the common species are in cultivation, and these have such different climatal requirements, that they do not afford a satisfactory criterion.
The mean annual temperature of this region differs little from that of the British Islands; but the climatal conditions are widely different.
There is reason to think, however, that it is the want of soil rather than climatal conditions that checks the upward extension of the alpine flora.
There is no positive evidence that the influence of new climatal conditions on the parents has any tendency to produce variations in the offspring better adapted to such conditions.
