66 
The danger of being dried up by sun and wind is one of the 
greatest of the risks to which Alpine plants are subjected. This 
danger is guarded against in a variety of ways. In the first place, 
the low stature of so many Alpine plants makes the effect of wind 
much less felt. The crowding together of some into cushion-like 
masses and the close set rosette-like arrangement of the leaves of 
others have a similar result. The great development of hairs, as in 
the familiar Edelweiss, and the succulent character of the leaves, as 
in the House-leeks (Pages 23 and 24), also prevent rapid drying up. 
Further, the extensive development of underground stems and roots 
so characteristic of many Alpine plants must provide an extensive 
area for both the absorption of water and its storage. 
But it is in connection with their flowers that the wonderful 
adaption of Alpine plants to their surroundings is perhaps best seen. 
These plants have flowers which are usually more numerous and of 
brighter colours than those of their relatives on the plains. They 
have generally more honey also. Further, yellow flowers are less 
numerous, and pink and blue flowers more abundant in Alpine 
regions than in lowland districts. This also requires explanation. 
As is well known, one of the principal objects of the life of plants is 
to arrange for the conveyance of pollen from the stamens of one 
flower to the seed-producing apparatus of another. This is some- 
times done by the wind, but much pollen is lost, so that this is 
manifestly a very wasteful method. Plants have therefore adopted 
the more economical plan of getting insect visitors to do this carry- 
ing business for them. Honey is provided to attract the insects 
to the flower, which is usually of some bright distinctive colour. 
As the total number of insect visitors is probably less in the Alps 
than on the plains greater attractions in the form of brighter flowers 
and more abundant honey have to be provided. But not only is the 
total number of insect visitors less in the Alps than in lowland dis- 
tricts, but the relative proportions of the several varieties is very 
different also. Thus there are comparatively few flies, bees, and 
wasps, but numerous bumble bees, butterflies, and moths in the 
higher regions. The latter have longer tongues, and prefer to visit 
flowers where the honey cannot be reached by shorter tongued 
insects. Flowers of this sort with less easily reached honey are 
more often of a red or blue colour and rarely of a yellow tint. In 
this way the brilliant colour of so many Alpine flowers is at any 
rate in part accounted for. 
The extreme effort made by many Alpine plants to attract insect 
visitors is well seen in such flowers as the Stemless Gentian and 
Long-spurred Violet (Pages 41 and 14), where the one or two flowers 
are as large as all the rest of the plant put together. After flowering 
the bright blue corolla of the Stemless Gentian (Page 41) shrivels up, 
and surrounds the seed vessel, at the same time changing its colour 
to green, and presumably taking on a vegetative function. It would 
seem as though the production of such a large corolla for attractive 
purposes had been too much for the little plant and that, after 
pollination, it was compelled to make use of it for vegetative 
purposes. 
Several varieties of Anemone (frontispiece, Pages 6, 7 and 8), are 
common in Switzerland, and are for the most part very beautiful 
flowers. 
