68 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



flora, for want of sufficient warmth during its short vegetative 

 period plants cannot devote their time to building up bulbs, for 

 which purpose, on account of the necessary chemical changes 

 and transformations, a high degree of warmth is required. The 

 role which bulbs play with plants in lower elevations is in Alpine 

 plants taken over by their leaves, which, as before mentioned, 

 serve the plants as reservoirs of foodstuffs for the coming season. 

 All characteristic Alpine plants therefore show, as a peculiarity, 

 the thickness of their leaves, and are consequently greatly in 

 contrast with their nearest relations of the lowlands. In the 

 Australian Alps we may observe this fact in certain plants, as 

 Eucalyptus coriacea, the Acacias, many Compositse, Drimys 

 aroniatica, Pimelea ligustrtna, Dianella tasmanica, Orites 

 lanci/olia, Westringia senifolia, and others. 



A special mark of Alpine plants is their dense hairiness, the 

 purpose of which is exclusively to protect the plants against 

 extensive evaporation. I am under the impression that the 

 number of species with vestitures is proportionally greater in the 

 European Alps than here. 



A further peculiarity in Alpine plants is in the crowded grassy 

 growth, with little stalks and small leaves. This circumstance is 

 explained by the fact that the plants of high mountains commence 

 with their vitality at a time when daylight already lasts from 

 15 to 16 hours. Now, as plants assimilate during daytime and 

 grow during the night, there is more time available for assimila- 

 tion, and plants with greater dimensions will therefore not have 

 such favourable chances ; m addition to this, of course, lower 

 temperature and other different circumstances, as wind and poor 

 soil, play an important part. As examples of this may be men- 

 tioned Slackhousia pulvinijera, Sccevola hookeri, Leontopodium 

 catipes, Gnaphalium alpigineuni. 



For the same reason lofty trees in Alpine regions are entirely 

 absent. On the other hand, the branches of the low Alpine 

 shrubs are, by the weight of snow masses, mechanically pressed 

 down on the soil, an appearance which is especially characteristic 

 in the European Alps. To take one instance, the depressed 

 bushes of Finus muyhus, or the Knee-wood of the European 

 Alps, with which Eucalyptus coriacea of our Alps may be com- 

 pared. 



Climbing plants, also, cannot find the necessary conditions for 

 their life, for the production of tendrils would occupy too much 

 time, which could be more profitably utilized for the production 

 of seeds. Of this kind of plant the European flora has only one 

 representative (Atragene alpina), while in the Australian Alps 

 climbing plants are entirely wanting. 



We have now arrived at a feature by which Alpine plants are 

 mostly distinguished from the related species of the lowlands — 



