WHERE DO 'ALPINES' BEGIN? 47 



tliere is some very real difficulty in drawing any 

 hard and fast line among Alpine plants without 

 doing some injustice to either one side or the other 

 of the line. The fact is, no such lines can, in 

 strictness, be drawn anywhere in Nature ; such 

 lines can only stand for purely utilitarian purposes. 

 In 'The Face of Nature,' Dr. C. T. Ovenden 

 declares, in his chapter on ' Vegetable Life,' that 

 ' it is easy to say that man stands at the head of 

 creation, that the animals are lower, and the 

 vegetables lower still, but our difficulty commences 

 when we try to draw a sharp line of distinction 

 betM^een the low forms of animal life and those 

 which are vegetable.' But are we not becoming 

 aware that our difficulty begins before this ? Are 

 we not beginning to feel that it is easy enough to 

 say, but not at all easy to prove, that our difficulty 

 about drawing a sharp line of demarcation arises 

 only when dealing with the lower forms of life ? 

 We feel to-day that there is a ' missing link ' 

 between man and the apes, and we are continually 

 coming upon links which connect those creations 

 which stand on one side of some old, dogmatic line 

 wdtli those which stand on the other side. Gradually, 

 but surely, are we erasing these lines for all ultimate 

 purposes ; gradually, but surely, are we coming to 



