PREHISTORIC BOTANISTS. I2 y 



tiquity of my botanists, Macmillan records having seen several 

 butterflies of the beautiful Apollo species at home eight thousand 

 feet above the sea. Another traveller observed a butterfly hover- 

 ing high above him while on the summit of Mont Blanc. I my- 

 self saw several butterflies revelling among Alpine flowers at an 

 elevation of six thousand feet, to say nothing of the occasional 

 individuals which I observed floating far above me about the 

 crags. Willis chronicles the discovery of numerous specimens in 

 glacial ice fourteen thousand feet in altitude. Moreover, on the 

 summit of Flegere, six thousand feet, I found a large moth which 

 had just emerged from its chrysalis, affording conclusive proof 

 that its entire existence in the caterpillar state had been spent in 

 this Alpen clime. 



That was rather a hap-hazard poet, therefore, who sang of his 

 delight to breathe the "iced air of the mountain-top" 



"Where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing 

 Flit o'er the herbless granite." 



Indeed, these Alpen fastnesses have a beautiful sturdy flora and 

 fauna of their own, and are replete with life. The Rhododendron 

 Nivale defies the elements upon its storm-beaten stronghold sev- 

 enteen thousand feet in altitude, two thousand feet higher than 

 the summit of Mont Blanc, and with its scarcely less doughty 

 companion, the " least willow," are among the last plants with 

 woody stems which one will meet in the ascent of the Alpen 

 summits. 



In the last named little shrub alone is furnished a fitting in- 

 dorsement to the claim of antiquity suggested by my title, and a 

 complete refutation also of the common belief concerning the ab- 

 sence of insect life on the loftiest Alpen summits, as this little 

 omnipresent herbaceous willow, barely three inches high, often in- 

 deed not more than an inch, still, with its ambitious show of honey- 

 baited blossoms, is absolutely dependent upon insect visits for its 

 perpetuation, the pollen-bearing flowers, being on separate plants 

 from those which produce the seed. Muller observed a small 



