i62 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



for instance. Height above the sea -level is equi- 

 It 



valent in climate to high latitude. In our lowlands 

 seasonal appearance is equivalent to both these con- 

 ditions, and the earliest plants to blossom in this 

 country belong to genera, and sometimes even species, 

 which are Alpine, as Chrysospleiiwm oppositifoliinn 

 and C. alternifolmm ; and thus we have a " vernal " 

 flora as well as one peculiar to the summer. All of 

 our spring plants that are identical with Alpine or 

 Arctic species are distinguished by flowering earlier 

 in the year ; in some cases as much as two or three 

 months before their brethren within the polar circle, 

 or on the fringe of Alpine snowfields. Consequently, 

 we owe our beautiful and cheering " spring flowers " 

 to the same great physical geographical distribution 

 which brought over the Arctic plants now found 

 on our British mountain -tops. And they are as 

 much acclimatised and protected by simply altering 

 their flowering time, and blossoming earlier in the 

 year, as if they had been left stranded on high 

 elevations instead. 



One chief characteristic of this class of plants 

 is their power to endure extreme cold and wet. 

 Several kinds of Buttercups, Stitchwort, etc., flower 

 all the winter through, unless the season is unusu- 

 ally cold. 



Many of these spring flowers display a tendency 

 towards a seasonal " division of labour." They 

 usually either flower before they leaf, as with the 



