41 



MOUNTAIN PLANTS AT THE SEASIDE. 



A. H. PAWSON, J. P., F.L.S., F.G.S., 



Past-President, Yorkshiye Naturalists' L'nwn. 



The flora of high mountains differs in several ways from that of 

 the lower ground. The species are naturally fewer, since not 

 every plant of the latitude is able to endure the hardships of 

 a mountain summit — its scanty and sterile soil, the stress of 

 its storms, the rigour of its frosts, and the quick changes of 

 its summer temperature. These fewer numbers are, however, 

 quite at home in their chosen habitat, for they have arranged 

 their manner of growth so that they feel no discomfort. They 

 are, without exception, small plants : they do not need much 

 nourishment. Their leaves, too, are small : they lie flat to the 

 ground. Here grow Willows with buried branches, whose 

 flowering twigs are not two inches high : here spreading shrubs, 

 like the dwarf Juniper and the Alpine Bearberry, hug the ground 

 so closely that they would hardly rise above the level of a well- 

 kept lawn. The wind cannot lay hold of this prostrate vegeta- 

 tion : no weight of snow can crush it flatter. These furious 

 elements are quite disarmed by such abject submission. 



How is it, then, that these hardy plants, which can flourish 

 thus on barren summits, do not descend somewhat to occupy 

 more flavourable ground ? They remain where they are because 

 it is the only place in which they could exist. Such pygmies 

 would be overpowered at once by the coarser herbage which 

 clothes the slopes below them. They are, in fact, prisoners on 

 their heights : perhaps it would be more correct to call them 

 refugees. 



All the plants of our lofty mountains are to be found near 

 the sea-level in higher latitudes, and I think we may say with 

 confidence that long ages ago they also inhabited the low 

 ground in our own country : for then an Arctic climate ruled the 

 _ land : our seas were frozen and our valleys were blocked with 

 ice. 



Although in Britain the mountain-plants are all Arctic, the 

 much higher mountain ranges of Central Europe nourish a large 

 flora of their own : yet among these Alpine plants a good 

 number of Arctic species are intermingled. Some of these, the 

 AroUa Pine, for instance, and the herbaceous Willow, are to be 

 found in the Alps and in the xArctic region, but not in the plain 



1905 February i. 



