A PLANT THAT MELTS ICE 31 



At the risk of seeming tedious in this prelimi- 

 nary explanation, I must also add that flower-buds 

 and flower-stems which grow and open very rapidly 

 must similarly use up oxygen in their growth, and 

 therefore distinctly rise in temperature. In a very 

 few large and conspicuous flowers, such as the big 

 white calla lily, this rise in temperature during the 

 flowering period can be measured even with an 

 ordinary thermometer. No bud can open without 

 giving out heat ; and the amount of heat is some- 

 times considerable. 



And now, I hope, we are in a position to 

 understand how soldanella acts, and why it does 

 so. It is a plant which grows under peculiarly 

 trying conditions. It has to eke out a livelihood 

 in the mountain belt, just below the snow-line ; 

 and it is a low-growing type, which must flower 

 early, or else it would soon be overshadowed by 

 taller rivals. For growth is rapid in the Alps, 

 once the snow has melted. Soldanella has thus 

 to blossom, and to secure the aid of its insect 

 fertilisers, at the precise moment when they emerge 

 from their cocoons in the first warm days of the 

 short alpine summer. If it waited later it would 

 be overtopped and obscured in a very few days 

 by the dense and rapid growth of waving grasses, 

 and aspiring globe - flowers, and long - stalked, 

 bulbous plants that crowd all around it. So 

 the soldanella seizes its one chance in life at the 

 earliest possible moment, and makes haste to pierce 

 its way through the solid ice-sheet, while lazier 

 rivals passively await its melting. That alone has 



