1917.] 



THE FLORA OF THE SWISS ALPS 



47 



g us tic urn mutelli- 

 na (L.) Crantzj. 

 and the alpine 

 meadow-grass ( Poa 

 alpina L.). The 

 Spingel is an au- 

 tochthon element, 

 from its aromatic 

 qualities much 

 sought by cattle. 

 It has a well-de- 

 veloped, much 

 branched rhizome 

 with long subter- 

 ranean creepers, so 

 that one plant may 

 cover some square 

 feet. These creep- 

 ers are covered 

 with sleeping buds, 

 forming quite a 

 lot of reserves for 

 replacing lost aeri- 

 al shoots eaten by 

 the cattle. This 

 faculty of repro- 

 duction is very 

 useful to pasture 

 plants. 



The third plant 

 is a grass, the al- 

 pine meadow- 

 grass; it is often 

 what i s falsely 

 called "viviparous." Instead of producing flowers and fruits, the 

 spikelets grow directly out in a little plant, in bulbils, which, after 

 dropping off the mother plant, take root directly, and so form a very 

 sure and abundant means of vegetative propagation. It is a very im- 

 portant fact that the cattle do not touch the panicles full of young 

 bulbils, though these would seem to be an excellent food ; but in or- 

 der to be able to bear the weight of all the bulbils, the stalk is so 

 fibrous that the cattle do not like it. We see here a very instructive 

 example of the fact that a certain structure caused directly by a 

 mechanical stimulus becomes useful indirectly in quite another di- 

 rection. Our meadow-grass is a very widely distributed circumpolar 

 element, that lives also on the Ural, the Himalaya, and the Rocky 

 mountains. 



Fig. 22. Common Bell Gentian (Gentiana Kochiana 

 Pen*. & Song.), Fluela-Schwarzhorn, Grisons, 2,600 

 meters above the sea. Photo Guyer. 



