82 TYPICAL FLOWERS OF ALPINE PASTURES 



Alpine species, except Saxifraga controversa, Stern- 

 berg, is a perennial plant. The latter species is quite 

 exceptional in being an annual. 



The compact form of the colony is especially 

 noticeable here, and is due to the fact that in the 

 Alps a great struggle for existence is everywhere in 

 evidence. Other plants tend to intrude into a colony 

 of Saxifrages or other Alpines, and to rob them of 

 their possession of the soil. In fact, what may be 

 not unfairly termed plant slums, comparable as 

 regards crowding to the worst slums of our great 

 cities, though infinitely more beautiful, are to 

 be seen on every hand in the Alps. Wherever 

 the ground is unoccupied, there is strong compe- 

 tition among the neighbouring plants to seize upon 

 it and to establish themselves, to the exclusion 

 of others. The competition, however, is not only for 

 the possession of the soil, but also for light and 

 air — matters of equal importance to the plant. 

 The photograph on Plate XV. shows a bank of the 

 Eough Saxifrage, and is a typical example of an Alpine 

 plant slum. The colony of the Saxifrage is here 

 holding its own very successfully, although other plants 

 have intruded into it. At the right-hand corner 

 flowers of the Eock Catchfly {Silene rupestris, Linn.) 

 (see Plate XVI., Pig. 2) are evident, and in this region 

 a struggle between these two plants is in progress. 

 Towards the left-hand side, two plants of a Eampion 

 are seen with heads of flowers borne on long stalks. 

 These are being overwhelmed by the advance of the 



