Sunshine and Shade 



roots are protected ; the close herbage prevents a 

 rapid evaporation of moisture, and the roots, 

 except in a very prolonged drought, are kept cool 

 and moist. High Alpine plants give a very good 

 example of this. Many a plant-lover in his search 

 for the distinctly Alpine plants comes upon or 

 sees at a distance a bare-looking hillside in which 

 it seems hopeless to search for any good plants. 

 But perhaps it is these unpromising-looking places 

 that will yield him the richest harvest. I had a 

 good lesson in this point in the Tyrolese Dolo- 

 mites, going from Predazzo to San Martino by 

 the Rolle Pass ; where about a mile or more on 

 each side of the top of the Pass, was a very 

 barren-looking Alp which seemed as unlikely a 

 place for good plants as possible. But from its 

 elevation (6600 feet) and other appearances, I 

 felt sure it would be worth a visit, and I went to 

 it more than once. It was a carpet of high 

 Alpines ; it will be enough to mention ranunculus 

 thora and rutifolius, phyteuma serratum, erigeron 

 uniflorus, veronica bellidoides, soldanella alpina, and 

 many others, including rare saxifrages and gentians 

 and a curious carpet of Edelweiss, not two inches 

 high and almost stemless ; while a little higher 

 up was potentilla nitida and rhododendron chamo3- 

 cistuS) and the whole Alp was thickly set with 

 arnica montana, which in a short time would be a 

 mass of gold. Now all these plants were fully 

 exposed to sun and wind, but not one of them 

 was standing alone in a place all to itself; they 



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