COLORADO WILD FLOWERS 



17 



and the white man of Europe. It is not the climate which makes the 

 negro black, the Chinaman yellow and the European white. It is their 

 inner nature. Moved from one continent to another they remain the 

 same color that they were in their former home. So it is, for the most 

 part, with plants. 



In most cases when the dwarf, matted species of the alpine heights 



Fig. 17. — Open Foothill Forest 

 This is a typical scene in the foothill zone; rock pines on the ridges with willows and 

 alders by the stream bank. 



are transplanted to-lower altitudes and there cultivated they do not change 

 much in form. Many of them refuse to grow in the changed condi- 

 tions. A few only become modified to any extent. 



The principal effect of altitude is to limit the geographical extension 

 of plants by changing the climate. The plants which make their home 

 on the tops of mountains are much like those of the arctic regions. They 



