Alpine Plants.

Alpine Plants. a name given not only to plants found at elevations approaching the limit of perpetual snow in the Alps, but also to plants belonging to other mountainous regions in any part of the world, whose natural place of growth is near snows that are never melted even by the beams of the summer's sun. As the elevation of the snow-line, however, varies very much in different countries, according to the latitude, and also from peculiar local circumstances, the term Alpine Plants is not so much significant of the actual elevation of the habitat, as of the average temperature which prevails there. On the Andes, near the equator, at an elevation of 12,000 to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, many kinds of plants are found, of humble growth, resembling in their general appearance those which occur in Germany and Switzerland at an elevation of 6000 feet; and these again either resemble, or are even identical with, the species which in Lapland grow upon hills of very little elevation, or which, in the northern parts of Siberia, are found at the level of the sea. Similar plants occur also in the Himalaya Mountains, at elevations varying remarkably within very narrow geographical limits from local causes, which also create great differences in the general dryness or humidity of the atmosphere. The laws of this natural distribution of plants have been in our own day for the first time investigated and elucidated by Humboldt, Wahlenberg, Schouw, De Candolle, and others, and form the most essential part of a branch of science still in its infancy—phytogeography (see GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION). When the alpine plants of Central Europe are spoken of, those are meant which grow at an average height of 6000 feet, marking what, in the language of distributional science, is called the alpine zone. This, on its northern limit, the Riesengebirge, falls as low as 4000 feet, and rises, in the southern Alps and Pyrenees, to an elevation of 9000 feet, and sometimes even above it. Although very rich in forms peculiarly its own, this zone contains many plants which are likewise found on much lower hills, and even in the plains. The number of these, however, diminishes as the elevation increases. Hence the small spaces clear of snow in the highest regions possess a very characteristic flora, the plants of which are distinguished by a very low diminutive habit, and an inclination to form a thick turf, frequently, also, by a covering of woolly hairs, whilst their stems are very often either partly or altogether woody, and their flowers are in proportion remarkably large, of brilliant colours, and in many instances very odoriferous, upon which accounts they remarkably attract and please the occasional visitors from the plains. In the Alps of Central Europe, the eye is at once caught by gentians, saxifrages, rhododendrons, and various species of primrose, as well as by the rarer edelweiss—Gnaphalium (Leontopodium) alpinum. With these and other phanerogamous plants are associated a number of delicate ferns and exceedingly beautiful mosses. The highest mountains in Scotland exhibit a somewhat similar flora, and beautiful plants, both phanerogamous and cryptogamous, are found on them, which never appear in lower situations, as the Alpine Speedwell (Veronica alpina), the small Alpine Gentian (Gentiana nivalis), the Rock Scorpion Grass, or Alpine Forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), Azalca procumbens, Woodsia ilvensis and hyperborea, &c. Many alpine plants are limited to a very small district. Thus, the flora of Switzerland differs considerably from that of Germany, the latter being now known to contain 3400 phanerogamous plants, of which the former contains 2200, and along with them also 126 species which have hitherto been found only in the Swiss Alps.—There are, moreover, particular species of plants which are found only in single localities, as Hypericum eoris, upon the Wiggs Mountains in the canton of Glarus; Wulfenia carinthiaca, upon the Küweger Alp, in Upper Carinthia; and many others. There are, however, many species which, occurring on the mountains of Central Europe, appear also in those of Britain and Scandinavia at lower altitudes, but are not found in the intervening plains. The colonies of alpine plants on mountainous regions are the survivors of the widespread arctic-alpine flora of glacial periods, which saved themselves in low latitudes by retreating to the heights upon the disappearance of cold climatic conditions from the low grounds.—Cryptogamic plants are generally found in alpine regions in much greater abundance than elsewhere. Their great beauty, even when dried, makes them favourites with those plant-collectors who have amusement more in view than the mere interests of science. Small herbaria of them are offered for sale everywhere in Switzerland; and in some places large collections have been prepared and thrown open to the public. The introduction of alpine plants into our gardens was formerly attended with difficulty, and success in establishing them was limited; but thanks to improved facilities in travelling, the extension of rapid means of communication, and, above all, to the dissemination of correct views of the requirements of these beautiful wildings under cultivation, there is now nothing to prevent our having the alpine flora of the world well and fully illustrated in our gardens. In fact, the progress that has been made, since about 1870, in introducing and successfully establishing species that were prior to that time considered incapable of existing out of their own peculiar habitats, is perhaps the most remarkable achievement of modern gardening art. The specially important collections in our leading botanical gardens are becoming yearly more rich in new species, by importation from their native wilds; and many of those that have been some time under cultivation, are developing varieties with distinctive characteristics of feature and constitution—a sure sign that the plants are tractable and amenable to the circumstances of cultivation. The number of private collections of alpine plants in England has greatly increased also within the past few years, and nurserymen are devoting more attention to their culture, showing that taste in flower-gardening is strongly tending in a more intellectual and satisfying direction, to all who take an interest in the art. The rich variety in colour and form, and the strongly-marked individuality that may be introduced into every flower-garden by employing freely these lowly but brilliant inhabitants of alpine regions in its embellishment, will mark a new era in English flower-gardening. Many alpine flowers, especially edelweiss and the alpine rose, threaten to become extinct in their native haunts, and in 1887 the government of Valais made inclosures for the protection and cultivation of these plants. See Sutherland's Alpine and Herbaceous Plants; Robinson's Alpine Plants; Hartinger's Atlas der Alpenflora (4 vols. 1882).