106 The Plant World. 



higher velocity for a short time. When it is remembered that a 

 velocity of twenty miles an hour blows up dust, it can be under- 

 stood how effective is the force of the wind upon soil and vegeta- 

 tion above the protection of the timber. 



These wind deposits are moistened by seepage from the melt- 

 ing snow above and augmented by the decay of vegetation car- 

 ried in by the birds which nest in the crevices, so that a soil 

 capable of sustaining the high alpine plants has gradually ac- 

 cumulated. The species are the same as those which inhabit the 

 rockfields and ledges, with occasionally a few meadow plants 

 on the wider ledges, and evidently have been carried in by the 

 winds and the birds. The species of the floors of the chasms 

 do not differ from those of similar altitudes without. The floors 

 of both the "Crater" and the "Bottomless Pit" are below 

 timberline and do not slope upward enough to bring them into 

 the alpine zone. In the case of those which do rise above timber- 

 line, the species from below merge gradually into the dominant 

 alpine forms. 



The alpine meadows are formed upon the accumulating 

 blanket of rock waste which is slowly creeping up the sides of the 

 mountain. It covers the tops of some of the hills below 13,00) 

 feet, dips over the saddle and extends somewhat interruptedly 

 to the very summit of the peak itself. In general these fields 

 are dry and wind-swept, and their vegetation low and matted. 

 They are broken, however, by rocky ledges outcropping on the 

 hilltops, rockfields, gravel slides, bogs, gulches and shallow de- 

 pressions occupied by rivulets which have their origin in the 

 numerous springs and in the melting snows of the higher ridges. 

 To these variations of environment are due the variations in 

 the size and structure of the plants, which astonish those who 

 imagine that the upper region of Pike's Peak is a barren waste of 

 rock. 



The rock ledges and the fields of broken rock blocks which 

 extend down the sides of some of the hills have a vegetation of 

 their own. The soil, which has accumulated in pockets between 

 the tumbled blocks, sometimes to a considerable depth, is mostly 

 wind-blown and therefore very fine; it is protected from the sun 

 and the full sweep of the winds and is continually moist. The 

 characteristic species, therefore, are tall and sometimes rather 



