Nature's Notes * * * * * 109 



sometime the flowers will swallow up all the mountain side that now 

 belongs to the great ice sheets. Some day, unless there is another ice 

 age, the flowers will capture the mountain." 



Of course, present-day Dudes and Sagebrushers will not see the 

 mountain humbled. These migrations of the flowers have taken thou 

 sands and thousands of years. In the course of the migrations many 

 species of flowers have been lost entirely. For that matter many new 

 ones have been formed, too, by the flowers and trees adapting them 

 selves to new conditions and climates. 



Almost equally interesting is the distribution of animals through the 

 life zones. The migrations of the animals are easier to understand. They 

 are not attached to the earth. They can move about and find new homes 

 quite easily. Yet they were distributed through their zones in much the 

 same manner, each animal following the climate that suited him best. So 

 it is that we find the mountain sheep and the little cony, or rock rabbit, 

 in the Hudsonian and Sub- Alpine zones of all the national parks, iso 

 lated from their kind by many miles of warmer climate which they shun 

 and avoid. There are still species of finches and ptarmigan which prefer 

 to raise their young in the rigorous and cold Arctic-Alpine summits of 

 Rocky Mountain and Glacier National parks, close to the glaciers. 



"Ranger, why are the colors of these mountain-top flowers so deep 

 and brilliant ?" 



"Well," answers the ranger, "scientists have never figured that out 

 exactly and we don't know for sure, but a ranger naturalist in one of 

 the parks has ventured the opinion that the reason lies in the fact that 

 there are so few insects on the mountain tops. Insects pollinize the 

 flowers and it would seem natural that they would be attracted to the 

 more brilliantly colored ones, hence these species are pollinized and re 

 produced, while the poor pale and colorless plants in time disappear or 

 at least are not so numerous as to be conspicuous." 



Many are the marvels of life at the snowline ! For instance, in many 

 parks little willow trees grow that are only two inches tall. They grow 

 up in the Arctic region, too, and are the winter food of the reindeer. 

 "Red asparagus," or snow plant, is another weird example of life. It is 

 a parasite plant. True flowering plants take their food or manufacture 

 it from the air and water. They have green stems and leaves, green 

 being chlorophyll, an essential to their lives. In the case of the snow 

 plant, it manufactures its food from dead or decayed vegetable matter, 

 hence it does not resemble other plants. It is scarlet in color and to all 

 but close observers its general appearance is that of an unusually large 

 stalk of asparagus, hence the name sometimes used, "red asparagus." 



As a general rule, flowering Alpine plants, grasses, and lichens will 

 grow for a thousand feet above the line of the last stunted and gnarled 



