The nest, too, is a neat creation of 

 small roots, coarse grass, bark and moss 

 and lined with a bedding of fine grass 

 and moss. It is usually placed on the 

 ground in fields or open woods, where 

 it is protected by the taller grasses. 

 Sometimes, however, low bushes or the 

 lower branches of trees are selected. 



So careful is the White-Throat in the 

 constructing of its nest not to disturb 

 the surrounding vegetation, and so neu- 

 tral is the color of the material used, 

 that one may hunt for a long time with- 

 out finding it unless he luckily stumbles 

 upon it. 



A PLANT THAT MELTS ICE. 



To say that a plant can melt ice is to 

 assert a miracle seemingly too great for 

 even Nature's powers to compass, but a 

 traveler lately returned from the Alps 

 has witnessed this wonderful phenome- 

 non, while Grant Allen and other author- 

 ities confirm the fact that the Alpine Sol- 

 danella melts for its blossom a passage 

 through the ice by power of its own in- 

 ternal heat. 



The majority of tourists visit the Alps 

 in August; therefore they miss a rare 

 sight, that of a daring little shrub open- 

 ing its fringed blue buds in the very mid- 

 dle of the snow sheet, and often show- 

 ing its slender head above a layer of ice, 

 in the most incredible fashion. 



We may regard the Alps as unpeopled 

 solitudes, but to Alpine plants they are a 

 veritable world of competing life types. 



Those only fitted for the struggle sur- 

 vive. 



The botanists tell us that the Soldanel- 

 la is heavily handicapped in the race. In 

 the first place, it is obliged to eke out a 

 livelihood in the mountain belt just be- 

 low the snow line; further, it is a very 

 low growing variety, and is quickly ob- 

 scured and overtopped by the dense and 

 rapid growth of its taller rivals ; hence its 

 anxiety to seize its one chance in life at 

 the earliest possibe moment. 



To attain the end of its being, the per- 



petuation of its species, it must steal a 

 march upon its companions, as it were, 

 and show itself while they are still locked 

 in sleep, and when its insect fertilizers, 

 fresh from their cocoons, can see and 

 visit it. 



To accomplish its purpose it has made 

 ample preparations. 



All through the previous summer its 

 round leaves, admirably fitted to their 

 purpose, have been spread to the moun- 

 tain sun and gathered in the fuel to be 

 burned later on. 



When winter arrives the leaves had 

 grown thick in rich material and so leath- 

 ery that no amount of snow could injure 

 them. 



The first warmth of spring melting 

 the edges of the snow sheet sends the 

 moisture trickling down to the Soldanel- 

 la's roots. This, acting upon them as 

 water upon malting barley, brings about 

 germination. 



The plant, absorbing the oxygen in the 

 air under the ice and combining it with 

 the fuel in its own substance, melts its 

 way into the open air. A fragile flower 

 forcing its way through a solid crust of 

 ice. Literally, not metaphorically, a slow 

 combustion store. 



This novel feat is accomplished every 

 season, yet comparatively few observers 

 note it. Louise Jamison. 



65 



