50 TYPICAL FLOWERS OF ALPINE PASTURES 



inches in height. The stem is simple or branched, 

 and bears a few small leaves, the upper ones arranged 

 in pairs. It ends in a small solitary flower, like that 

 of the Spring Gentian, but smaller. 



The Snow Gentian, like the Spring Gentian, is a 

 British plant, though it is rare with us, and is only 

 found on a few of the higher Scotch mountains. In 

 the Alps it is a very common plant in the pastures, 

 and is not, as perhaps the name Snow Gentian implies, 

 by any means necessarily confined to high elevations. 

 In fact, its upward range ceases at about 9,900 feet, 

 while it is much commoner at elevations of 5,000 to 

 6,000 feet. It is thus not a High Alpine plant at all. 



The flowers of this species are extraordinarily 

 sensitive to sunlight. They are nearly always closed 

 unless the sun is shining very brightly, and, the 

 moment the sun disappears behind a cloud, the 

 flowers may shut with considerable rapidity. They 

 thus sometimes open and shut many times in the 

 course of an hour, changes in temperature acting as a 

 signal to the plant to open or close its flowers. It 

 should also be observed that when the flowers shut, 

 not only are the free portions of the petals held erect, 

 but they twist together in a spiral. 



The Common Bell Gentian. 



We now pass to consider the Bell Gentians, which 

 have the largest corollas of the blue-flowered Alpine 

 Gentians. We will take the Common Bell Gentian, 



