ALPINE PLANTS. 3OI 



C. triviale alpestre, and C. triviale are in descending order 

 as regards size. The British flora is, however, very- 

 poor in alpines. For example, it gives no idea of the 

 extraordinary variety of colour which is to be found in 

 the Alps or the Pyrenees. Not only are the flowers 

 there relatively larger, but their colour is often strongly 

 intensified. Rich blues, purples and crimsons are 

 very abundant ; in fact, so marked is this character 

 that a great many alpine plants are in cultivation, and 

 a rock garden generally contains a very large percentage 

 of them (see p. 21). 



Both seeds and living plants have been brought from 

 the Alps, and cultivated in the lowlands with the special 

 object of testing the effect of the climate on the flowers. 

 It was found that in the lowlands the colours were 

 decidedly less brilliant, and the flowers relatively smaller 

 than they were in their original alpine habitat. 



Besides this tendency to brilliant and large flowers 

 there is a very different character. In Alpine situations 

 grasses and other plants produce degenerate flowers in 

 which the parts have become leafy and green. Sometimes 

 instead of the proper flowers there are fleshy bulbils 

 similar to those of the garlic, and capable of growth 

 and of reproducing the parent plant. A good instance is 

 that of the Polygonum already mentioned, P. vivipannn. 

 Ptarmigan are said to be specially fond of these fleshy 

 bodies and probably aid in the distribution of the plant. 

 No complete explanation has ever been given, at least to 

 my knowledge, of this " vivipai^ous " tendency of alpines 

 which was first mentioned by Linnaeus, who, in 1796, 

 noticed also the dwarf character {exiguae), the harder, 

 more woody and shrubby appearace, as well as the 

 succulence of alpine plants. This dwarfing is perhaps 

 most easily realised by comparing any of the alpine 



