The Scottish Naturalist. 307 



2d, Some peculiarities and anomalies in their distribution in 

 our country ; and 



3d, Whence and when introduced, and how distributed? 



i. What are alpine plants? This is a question more easily 

 asked than answered. It may be said to be an arbitrary term, 

 signifying the vegetation belonging to elevated regions above 

 the tree limits, and above the limits of cultivation on the one 

 hand, and on the other bounded only by the line of perpetual 

 snow. Of course in our country there is no upper limit to our 

 alpine flora, as we have no line of perpetual snow, the compara- 

 tively low altitude of the hills, together with our insular climate, 

 preventing its accumulation to such an extent as to be perpetual. 

 Our hills as a rule are free of snow during the summer months, 

 although in some seasons large masses lie in the corries all the 

 year round. But what are alpine plants in some countries, 

 agreeing to these conditions, are lowland plants in other 

 countries. 



Dr Lawson, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, says, in reference to 

 Scotland : " It is natural that botanists should regard all the 

 plants now found on the mountains exclusively as really alpine 

 plants, growing there by preference because the climate is more 

 suitable for them than the lowlands. Per contra, we have not- 

 able facts around us here in Nova Scotia. Some of these Scotch 

 mountain plants come down into the glens, as Rub us chamaemorus 

 and Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. Now these are essentially moun- 

 tain plants in every country in Europe in which they occur ; but 

 here, with our warm summer climate, so much drier and hotter 

 than that of any part of England, we have Rubus chamcemorus 

 abounding at the sea-level, and providing the Halifax market 

 every season with its fruit, well known under the name of Bake- 

 apple. The Arctostaphylos creeps over the bare rocks about 

 Windsor Junction, and all along the rocky track of our railway; 

 and even on the hot granite and limestone cliffs of Ontario we 

 find it maintaining its luxuriance along the banks of the great 

 lakes. Epilobium alpinum does not grow with us except in the 

 lower parts of the St Lawrence gulf, where both the water and 

 the air remain cold for a long period of the growing season. 

 There also Dryas octopetala grows. 



" Woodsia ilvensis, one of the rare alpine ferns of Scotland, 

 grows with us not only in Nova Scotia but in Ontario as well, on 

 hot dry sunny cliffs. Polystichiuu tonchitis, not in bleak rocky 

 corners, as in Clova, but by the sea or lake shores. Asplenium 



