Proceedings of the Club 



Wednesday Evening, 30 Oct., 1901 



Meeting at the College of Pharmacy at 8 p. m., Rev. L. H. 

 Lighthtpe in the chair, 19 persons present. 



Three new members were elected: F. S. Earle, Botanical 

 Garden, Bronx Park, N. Y.; Alexander P. Anderson, Columbia 

 University, N. Y.; Miss Caroline Coventry Haynes, 16 East 36th 



street. 



The scientific program was opened by a paper by Dr. D. T. 

 MacDougal, entitled "Some Characters of alpine Vegetation/' 

 The paper was illustrated with numerous sheets of mountain plants 

 from Montana, many of them attached photographs showing the 

 habitat. In the Missoula region where Dr. MacDougal was work- 

 ing this summer, the growing season for many plants was about 40 

 days only, but the actual light reaching the plants may have been 

 30 to 40 per cent, greater than at sea level, and with a larger pro- 

 portion of blue rays. These mountain tops may be among the 

 dryest places on the continent or may contain swamp pockets. 

 There is no distinct type of alpine vegetation as such ; but alpine 

 plants are really xerophytes, being such plants as have adapted 

 themselves to an insufficient water-supply. 



Our alpine plants are often thought to be identical with polar 

 plants. But the polar plant receives light continuously through a 

 long period, though the light is of little intensity. The polar 

 plant has an atmosphere of much greater humidity but a much 

 colder soil. Polar plants develop much greater thickness of leai. 

 Alpine plants abound in more numerous protective devices, as 

 waxy coatings, hair, thicker stems, and modes of propagation 

 without seeds. Poa alpina, for example, in many mountain re- 

 gions is never known to flower. 



Remarks followed regarding the viviparous form of Poa alpma, 

 Dr. Rydberg observing its abundance in Greenland and Spitzber- 

 gen, and Miss Isaacs remarking on her collecting it at 75°° n 

 the last summer in Switzerland. 



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