146 PLANTS OF THE ALPINE MEADOWS 



Everywhere there is a rush to get into flower. For 

 this object everything has been long prepared. The 

 plant seems to be aware that the season is short and 

 will last but a few months at the best, and that during 

 this period temporary checks to growth will frequently 

 occur in the shape of sudden lowerings of the tempera- 

 ture and transient snowfalls. 



During the short summer period, the plant has to 

 perform its duty to the next generation — the reproduc- 

 tion of offspring. The actual flowering period is but 

 one stage in this process. Time is required to set 

 and ripen the seed, to distribute it, and to allow it a 

 fair opportunity of taking a firm hold in its new 

 surroundings before the mantle of snow cuts it off 

 from the outside world. All these processes are often 

 comparatively lengthy. Hence the race against time. 



But other work equally important has to be 

 performed during this brief season. Most Alpine 

 plants are perennials, and during the short summer 

 months such a plant has varied duties to itself to 

 perform. When it reaches the light, it has not only 

 to manufacture its food - supply by the agency of 

 its leaves, and thus maintain its own existence and 

 make good the costly outlay of energy on repro- 

 duction, but it has, as often as not, to store up during 

 the summer those reserves which are to carry it 

 through the long, dark winter months. Thus, the 

 brief summer season is, indeed, a busy time. In a 

 temperate climate such as that of Britain, the period 

 available for these processes is quite long in com- 



