78 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



hard to conceive, that several of these non-Arctic 

 species and genera should still more recently have 

 been distributed at wide intervals throughout a dis- 

 continuous mountain chain some 1,500 miles in length, 

 from the Pyrenees to the Eastern Carpathians ? " Mr. 

 Ball's remarks, indeed, just touch upon a very important 

 characteristic of all the so-called Alpine plants. In 

 Europe they chiefly occur in Scandinavia and the 

 central and southern mountain ranges, whilst they 

 are mostly absent from the intervening lowlands. 

 Again, we find a large number of species in the 

 mountains of Central Asia and in some of the North 

 American mountains. Almost all species of Alpine 

 plants, in fact, are examples of discontinuous distribu- 

 tion; and this, as every naturalist knows, is always, in 

 both animals and plants, a proof of antiquity. 



The glacial or Alpine flora is very old, and must 

 have originated long before the Ice Age. But it might 

 be urged, why should these plants be now almost con- 

 fined to the Arctic regions and the higher mountain 

 ranges, where the temperature undoubtedly is very 

 low, if they had originated during a pre-glacial 

 period probably much milder than the present? 

 The answer can be given by those who have made 

 Alpine plants their special study, and who have 

 attempted to grow them by administering to them 

 a temperature and such climatic conditions as to 

 be most conducive to good health. We should all 

 expect these plants to be very robust, and especially 

 to be able to stand extremely low temperatures. But, 



