256 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



regions, cannot get up so high ; with their heavy 

 bodies, their smaller wing power will not lift them 

 into this zone of rarer air, which the butterflies, 

 with lighter bodies and larger wings, can easily 

 traverse. So the flowers must perforce bid for the 

 services of the higher-flying butterflies. Butterflies 

 do not search diligently, methodically, from one 

 flower to the next, as do the neuter bees with their 

 different aims. They fly high above the flowers, 

 and only alight here and there, and now and then, 

 as they want a sip of nectar. So the flowers spread 

 themselves out in large flat mats, easily striking the 

 eye from a distance, and take the form of deep and 

 open bells like the gentians, with plenty of honey 

 easily reached by the long butterfly proboscis. 



As to the number of species constituting the 

 Alpine flora of Central Europe, Baker says there 

 cannot be less than a thousand species, but Dr. 

 Christ counts them only as seven hundred. A 

 large proportion are high climbing species of cool, 

 temperate genera ; those of Oxytropis and Astra- 

 galus have hundreds of species on the Steppes of 

 Asia, and the half-dozen Alpine ones seem to mark 

 the limit of their western migration. Edelweiss is 

 a true plant of the prairies. On the Steppes of 

 Siberia it grows by millions among Achillea, 

 Centauria and Artemisia. When it descends from 

 the high Alps to its most fertile stations it puts on 

 the slenderer habit which it has in its Asiatic home. 

 Some are Mediterranean forms, a few are American. 

 About a third of the whole are Arctic as well as 

 Alpine plants ; that is to say they are found in the 

 Arctic zone, as well as in the Alps. The Arctic 

 plants as distinguished from the Alpines, are 

 considered to be the older. The theory is that 

 after the retreat of the glaciers of the last ice 

 age, the endemic Alpine flora was formed, and 

 the Arctic one was able to spread itself anew in 

 the higher Alps. Thus the endemic flora is 

 an age younger than the northern one. If 

 the endemic flora had existed in the time of 

 the glacial epoch, how can its absence be 

 explained from the countries of the north. 

 What proves that the true Alpines were formed 

 after the climate moderated is that their types are 

 southern and Mediterranean, which are trans- 

 formed into true Alpines like Erica caruea. They 

 are species which were able to immigrate and 

 modify themselves when the climate permitted 

 them to maintain themselves in the Alpine zone. 

 About 182 species may be said to have thus 

 originated in our Alps, and they are distinguished 

 from the Arctic plants in more than one way. 

 They inhabit dry stations and rocks, as the white 

 potentillas, saxifrages of the group of Aizoon, 

 gentians, campanulas, Phyteuma, Achillea, and 

 Sempervivum. Among the genus Epilobium only one, 

 fleischeri, is truly Alpine. The seven species of 

 Phyteuma, the six stemless Androsace, the four 



Sesleria are exclusively Alpine. The Alpine chain, 

 with a climate warmer and drier than the Arctic 

 zone, has given birth to species which have chosen 

 the stations that do not suit the Arctic species, 

 which, having sought humid spots, have abandoned 

 the dry places to the endemic species. In the 

 struggle between the two, the Alpine flora has the 

 preponderance when encouraged by the softness of 

 the southern climate ; but when the damp and cold 

 of the altitude make themselves more strongly felt, 

 they give place to the plants of the north which 

 can the better resist. Thus our Alpine plants are 

 a mixed race of endemic species, Arctic species, 

 and high-climbing species of the neighbouring 

 temperate regions. This theory of origin is, I 

 believe, not unchallenged ; I give it because I know 

 no better. Mr. Ball the President of the Alpine 

 Club, has another; but it is buried, to me, in an 

 unknown volume of the "Transactions of the 

 Royal Geographical Society." 

 Ambleside; November, 1895. 



THE NEW LEPIDOPTEROLOGY. 



\~\ 7E have been favoured with an advance copy 

 of " The Label List of British Lepidoptera," 

 compiled after " A Handbook of British Lepi- 

 doptera," by Edward Meyrick, B.A., F.Z.S., F.E.S. ; 

 published by Watkins and Doncaster, of 36, Strand, 

 London. It was a wise thing for Mr. Meyrick to 

 arrange for the issue of this list in conjunction 

 with his handbook which we noticed at length 

 last month (page 229). The list will be useful for 

 gaining at a glance a summary of Mr. Meyrick's 

 new arrangement, but if the list were synonymic, its 

 value would have been the greater. On opening 

 its pages, which number thirty-four, at first sight, 

 especially to those who have not yet seen his 

 handbook, the new nomenclature and arrange- 

 ment make a nice puzzle for solution. The first 

 page we notice at random is number four, and on 

 it we find the genus Harmodia, one species being 

 luteago, Hb. As there are no synonyms in this 

 list and we are writing in an express railway 

 train where our copy of Hubner's work is not 

 available, Harmodia luteago does not convey much 

 to one's mind. Our only guide is that it is arranged 

 between what was called Dianthicia caesia and 

 D. carpophaga, and then we remember that some 

 people think the Irish D. barrelti of Doubleday is 

 the same species as Hubner's luteago. Fallowing 

 in the same column as this occurs, is Melanchra 

 chrysozona, Bkh., associated in the same genus 

 with cespitis, serena, brassier and myrtilli, so we have 

 to give up this puzzle until we can return to our 

 library. Altogether Mr. Meyrick has given plenty 

 of occupation, for those who adopt his system, and 

 for those who do not, in keeping up to date in 

 the new Lepidopterology. J. T. C. 



