44 MADRONO [Vol. 1, 



It likes the so-called "snow-flushes," little depressions always 

 saturate with snow-water, where it often forms pure carpets of sev- 

 eral square feet (Fig. 19). It belongs historically to the "Glacial 

 Migrants," plants which have reached their present distribution 

 under glacial conditions. It is widely distributed also in Arctic re- 

 gions. 



Leaving these representations of woody plants, we turn now to 

 the herbaceous species. There we find first a group of large plants 

 forming on humus and manured soil of herbaceous thicket ( ' ' Hoch- 

 staudenflur, " or tall herb growth). They form often a typical asso- 

 ciation of chalet-plants or leger-plants, forming a luxuriant garden 

 round the alpine huts. Only azote-loving plants not touched by cat- 

 tle can live in this over-manured soil, and so we find on this fertile 

 soil a vegetation of absolute weeds, a great drawback in the economi- 

 cal feature of our Alps. Experiments on the Fiirstenalp near Chur 

 in the Grisons have shown that it is possible to convert these thick- 

 ets of weeds into splendid artificial meadows, and so hundreds and 

 hundreds of acres of the best alpine soil can be added to the culti- 

 vated alpine land. 



Now we tread on the continuous vegetation of the alpine pas- 

 tures and meadows. The fioristic composition, the plant association 

 of this sward, depends essentially on its treatment by the alpine 

 farmer. The master factor is here the manuring, which favors cer- 

 tain plants and discourages others ; in a secondary manner work as a 

 selecting factor the scythe and the pasturing of cattle. The flora of 

 the meadow belt of our Alps is only to be understood as an effect 

 of those artificial factors which since centuries ago operated with 

 the same force as climate and soil. 



The richest flora is to be found on those steep grassy slopes 

 where the cattle do not have to go and where only occasionally the 

 herder exercises his dangerous work of cutting his "Wildheu. " 

 These slopes of wild hay are the El Dorado for the botanist. 



Next to these come in floristical variety the non-manured but 

 regularly cut meadow, where often upward to 8,000 feet a luxuriant 

 vegetation enraptures the botanist. Far more uniform in their veg- 

 etation are the manured meadows of the valleys, and the most trivial 

 flora show in open pastures, where the tramping, pasturing, and 

 manuring cattle exercise a triple trivializing influence. Also the soil 

 of meadow and pasture is different: the first is smooth, the latter 

 covered by hundreds of little depressions caused, by the feet of the 

 cattle. 



We wander through the pastures in springtime ; the snow begins 

 to melt and at the edges of the snow-fields the life begins to rise. 

 With flower-buds ready to open, the Soldanelles wait for the first 

 breath of spring, when they pierce the thin covering of snow, aided 

 by the sun, which, permeating the snow, warms the little brown 

 flower-stalks. And next they open triumphantly their delicate flower- 



