CHAPTER VIII 



ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 



THE aridity of Arctic and high Alpine regions 

 is well known, while the soil is always of a 

 relatively lower temperature ; these, and other 

 causes bring about the dwarf character of plants 

 there. Besides this, they exhibit a compact habit 

 of growth, sometimes giving a moss-like appear- 

 ance and furnishing the specific names muscoides, 

 bryoides, etc. Others have a certain degree of 

 succulency in their foliage, thus Plantago alpina 

 is closely like P. maritima. Many other details 

 might be enumerated which collectively pro- 

 nounce them as xerophytes of a special type. 



That these should also be found in Arctic 

 plants is not strange, for several plants in both 

 regions are identically the same species ; the 

 Alpine plants having been, as it is supposed, 

 derived from the Arctic during or after the 

 glacial epoch, having reached the mountains, 

 where they have remained ever since. Though 

 the Arctic regions are somewhat moister, the 

 average characters of the inhabitants are much 

 the same, both being xerophytic. The xero- 



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