PREHISTORIC BOTANISTS. 127 
tiquity of my botanists, Macmillan records having seen several 
butterflies of the beautiful Apollo species at home eight thousand 
feet above the sea. Another traveller observed a butterfly hover- 
ing high above him while on the summit of Mont Blanc. I my- 
self saw several butterflies revelling among Alpine flowers at an 
elevation of six thousand feet, to say nothing of the occasional 
individuals which I observed floating far above me about the 
crags, Willis chronicles the discovery of numerous specimens in 
glacial ice fourteen thousand feet in altitude. Moreover, on the 
summit of Flégére, six thousand feet, I found a large moth which 
had just emerged from its chrysalis, affording conclusive proof 
that its entire existence in the caterpillar state had been spent in 
this Alpen clime. 
That was rather a hap-hazard poet, therefore, who sang of his 
delight to breathe the “iced air of the mountain-top”— 
“Where the birds dare not build, nor insect’s wing 1 
Flit o’er the herbless granite.” 
Indeed, these Alpen fastnesses have a beautiful sturdy flora and 
fauna of their own, and are replete with life. The Ahododendron 
Nivale defies the elements upon its storm-beaten stronghold sev- 
enteen thousand feet in altitude, two thousand feet higher than 
the summit of Mont Blanc, and with its scarcely less doughty 
companion, the “least willow,” are among the last plants with 
woody stems which one will meet in the ascent of the Alpen 
summits. 
In the last named little shrub alone is furnished a fitting in- 
dorsement to the claim of antiquity suggested by my title, and a 
complete refutation also of the common belief concerning the ab- 
sence of insect life on the loftiest Alpen summits, as this little 
omnipresent herbaceous willow, barely three inches high, often in- 
deed not more than an inch, still, with its ambitious show of honey- 
baited blossoms, is absolutely dependent upon insect visits for its 
perpetuation, the pollen-bearing flowers being on separate plants 
from those which produce the seed. Miiller observed a small 
