204 MARSH PLANTS 



Marsh Plants. 



The concluding part of this chapter will be devoted 

 to the Alpine marsh plants — not a very large class. 



To avoid excessive competition, and to mitigate 

 the struggle for existence, plants have specialised in 

 different directions. Some have taken to the water 

 entirely, others to marshes or perpetually damp 

 localities, while a third group favours soils with high 

 water-contents, such as peat. On the other hand, 

 certain plants, such as the Edelweiss, already dis- 

 cussed (p. 15), have specialised in quite the opposite 

 direction, and flourish on soils and in situations 

 where the water-supply is of the scantiest nature. 

 There remain a third set of plants which exist under 

 conditions midway between these two extremes. 

 There is no doubt that all the Higher Plants 

 ( Angiosperms) which have become aquatic or adapted 

 to marshy places have been derived from the last 

 class, for although in the first place all land plants 

 were evolved from aquatic ancestors, these ancestors 

 existed at a very distant geological period, long before 

 the Higher Plants came into existence. In the case 

 of present-day aquatics, we have merely an interesting 

 case of a return to the far-away and remotely primitive 

 habitat. 



In the present chapter we may consider the plants 

 of the Alpine marshes, and more especially the species 

 which are restricted to open situations, in which the 

 soil is, as a rule, constantly moist. 



