The American Botanist 



VOL. XXV. November, 1919 No. 4 



'CAe odorous wild grape clambers 



Over the tumhlmg wall, ^ 



ylnd through the autumnal quiet 



'^he chestnuts open and fall. 

 Sharing time's freshness and fragrance, 



'Part of the earth's great soul, 

 Here man's spirit may ripen 



'^o wisdom serene and whole. 



— ^liss Carman. 



ALPINE PRIMROSES 



By Mrs. Blanche H. Soth. 



nry wo of the three species of Rocky Mountain primroses are 

 -^ alpine forms; that is, they grow only on the tops of the 

 higher peaks above the tree line. The narrow-leaved prim- 

 rose (Primula angustifolia) is a tiny plant that blooms in the 

 grassy meadows early in the alpine summer while they are 

 yet moist from the melting snow. It grows only two or three 

 inches high and bears a single showy pink blossom that is 

 faintly fragrant. So closely together do these little plants 

 grow that the blossoms hide the grass and gravel and give 

 their color to acres of steep meadow slopes during their brief 

 blooming season. 



A tall handsome plant is the crimson primrose {Primula 

 Parryi). From a tuft of large, rather succulent, root leaves 

 it sends up a spike, a foot or more high, of brilliant yellow- 

 eyed, crimson-purple flowers. It grows in wet places among 

 the rocks at high elevations and blooms later in the season 

 than does the narrow-leaved primrose. It is a very notice- 

 able plant, indeed, in that region of bare rocks and low grow- 



