438 Ever-sporting Varieties 



7iula rotundifolia may be quoted as instances, 

 and every botanist who bas visited alpine re- 

 gions may add other examples. Even the edel- 

 weiss of the Swiss Alps, Gnaphalium Leonto- 

 podium, loses its alpine characters, if cultivated 

 in lowland gardens. Between such lowland and 

 alpine forms intermediates regularly occur. 

 They may be met with whenever the range of the 

 species extends from the plains upward to the 

 limit of eternal snow. 



In this case the systematists formerly enu- 

 merated the alpine plants as forma alpestris, but 

 whenever the intermediate is lacking the term 

 varietas alpestris was often made use of. 



It is simply imjoossible to decide concerning 

 the real relation between the alpine and low- 

 land types without experiments. About the 

 middle of the last century it was quite a com- 

 mon thing to collect plants not only for her- 

 barium-material, but also for the purpose of 

 planting them in gardens and thus to observe 

 their behavior under new conditions. This 

 was done with the acknowledged purpose 

 of investigating the systematic significance of 

 observed divergencies. Whenever these held 

 good in the garden they were considered to be 

 reliable, but if they disappeared they were re- 

 garded as the results of climatic conditions, 

 or of the influence of soil or nourishment. Be- 



