CHARACTERISTICS OF ALPINE PLANTS 59 



pent-up eagerness, quantities of the year's earliest 



flowers. Even away under the hollow dome of 



icy snow, which resembled the snout of some 



miniature glacier, tiny plants could be discerned 



already busily developing their bloom-buds. Here, 



late in August, was very early spring ! Here was 



the Crocus and the Vernal Gentian, the Solda- 



nella, Viola, and Oxlip. Here, too, was Trollim 



eicropceus, the Globe Flower, and Ranunculus 



alpestris — not, as lower down in the normal 



spring-time, making their usual growth of stem 



and leaf before opening their flowers, but hurrying 



up at once their blossoms on the shortest of thick, 



fleshy stalks. Here was no time for easy loitering ; 



here was but to do — or die! In another month, 



perhaps less, snow might be expected to be again 



in possession of the scene ; and then for another 



nine weary months of seclusion— perhaps, even, for 



another two live-long years ! Truly, it is a state 



of things which, much on all-fours with that of the 



traditional toad and beetle, cannot but give pause 



for thought and wonder, and the more so when 



we think that there, under that remaining mass of 



ice, are yet more hundreds of little Alpine plants 



which can never hope to see the light of day this 



year 1 



8—2 



