50 OUTLINE OF PLANT GEOGRAPHY 



The many rock-plants found at the higher altitudes consti- 

 tute a very characteristic type of the alpine vegetation. These 

 include various lichens and mosses, and a few small ferns, as 

 well as numerous flowering plants, many of them related to 

 those also found in the open meadows, such as gentians, Silene, 

 Campanula, etc. Other genera like the saxifrages and stone- 

 crops, and the little alpine poppies, are usually rock-plants. 

 These are densely tufted, or form rosettes of leaves close to the 

 ground, from which the flower-stalks arise. 



The snow-line in the Alps is about 10,000 feet elevation (3250 m.) 

 but a considerable number of species may occur above this. 

 Schroeter * lists 110 species in this category. 



Between the strictly alpine regions, and the lowlands, is an 

 intermediate region, varying much in elevation, and other con- 

 ditions, and supporting a very rich and varied sub-alpine flora. 

 The beauty of the sub-alpine meadows of Switzerland and 

 Tyrol is proverbial. 



About the end of June the meadows are solid beds of beauti- 

 ful flowers in amazing variety, which almost entirely conceal 

 the grass amid which they are growing. A little later, the grass 

 grows above the mass of gay bloom, and flowers and grass are 

 cut down together for hay. 



Among the beautiful meadow flowers noted by the writer at 

 Cortina, in the Dolomite region of Tyrol, toward the end of June, 

 were great masses of pale yellow pansies, f orget-me -nots, scabious, 

 orchids of several species, many Umbelliferae, various clovers, 

 vetches, lotus, and other Papilionaceae, many campanulas, daisies, 

 buttercups, hawkweed, gentians, and in the lower, wet places, grass 

 of Parnassus (Parnassia), cotton-grass (Eriophorum) and an 

 orchis. 



In the adjacent woods, were many wood-anemones (A. nem- 

 orosa), and hepatica, but the latter out of flower; kingcups 

 (Trollius), marsh-marigold, spotted orchis, lily of the valley, 

 Solomon's seal. The only European lady's slipper (Cypripediu?n 

 calceolus) also grows near Cortina as well as two lilies (Lilium 

 martagon and L. bulbiferum), but the latter was not yet in bloom. 

 The pretty white St. Bruno's lily (Liliastrum) , however, was 

 in full flower, and very attractive. 



1 Schroeter, C, Das Pflanzenleben der Alpen, pp. 612-613, Zurich, 1908. 



