Alpine and Arctic Floras 
the conditions are very often quite different from the 
rarefied air and intense cold of the Himalayas, or from 
the dreary tundra solitudes of the frozen north. 
One finds little ravines full of moisture and rock 
ledges kept continually fresh by the water which trickles 
over them. The plants which grow there have a month 
or two at least of brilliant sunshine, and are always 
refreshed by dew at night even in the driest weather. 
Such saxifrages, sedums, gentians, campanulas, and 
the like are the favourite “‘alpines” of the gardener, 
and they exercise a strange domination over those who 
have once taken any interestin them. They are usually 
small, neat, and compact, but are remarkable especially 
for their rich deep colours and relatively very large 
flowers. 
But in an alpine garden and carefully looked after 
these mountaineers are neither so gorgeous nor so rich 
as they are on their native rocks and ledges. 
There one finds the deep blue of the gentians, as well 
as crimson, rich reds, purple, gold-yellow, and pure 
white scattered over the short close vegetation in lavish 
profusion. 
The experiment of transplanting numbers of these 
alpines has often been carried out, and it is always 
found that the colours fade and are by no means so 
gorgeous in the lowlands. This may be because they 
miss the sunshine of their mountain homes, or because 
life is too easy for them in a richly cultivated soil and 
equable climate. But the colour of flowers is a question 
in itself (see p. 111). 
There are many interesting questions connected with 
the origin of the alpine flora. 
It is only of recent years that botanists have dared to 
explain the distribution of species by assuming the 
formation of new species in special places, 
g6 
