ANECDOTES OF ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 15 
Often, they seem nearly all flower, with little foliage. This is a 
character of Alpine species, but we see it also in varietal forms. 
Erysimum asperum is a pretty crucifer, not very unlike our wall- 
flower, growing abundantly in Wet Mountain Valley. At timber 
line, I found a dwarf, * not 2P inches high, but with the flowers of 
the usual size of the typical form. 
The advantages of these peculiarities . — As stated before, it may 
be an advantage to plants where the winds blow strongly, to be 
dwarf : but this is hardly the main advantage of dwarfing. 
Transport an ordinary valley seedling plant to a mountain top, 
and watch its growth. Without having made the experiment, 
we can judge what might happen. Supposing that the forces 
of heredity were strong enough to prevent dwarfing (which I can 
well imagine), our plant would throw out abundant foliage, a 
well-developed stem would be produced, and finally, as the buds 
were forming, the short alpine summer would be ended, and it 
would die under the violence of the storms. With true mountain 
plants it is different. When the snow and ice melt in the early 
summer, every energy is thrown into the main purpose of pro- 
ducing flowers and seed. There is no time or use for luxuriant 
foliage or diffuse growth, but quickly opening attractive flowers 
appear, and as quickly vanish, having received their insect 
visitors in the short sunny season, and perfecting seed before 
the winter snow blows over them. 
Such plants, indeed, are intensely hatabolic, full of energy and 
change. Later on, the frequent blue colour of their flowers will 
be seen to be probably a result of this. 
One other advantage of dwarfing remains to be mentioned. 
Where it is so cold, some additional warmth may be secured by 
close proximity to the ground, which is warmed in the daytime 
by a brilliant sun. So altogether, in the production of alpine 
dwarfs, it seems that both environment as such and natural 
selection may come into play. T. D. A. Cockerell. 
(To be continued.) 
ANECDOTES OF ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
,VERY month we receive for insertion in Nature Notes 
j a large number of letters setting forth the marvellous 
sagacity of the writers’ pets. We much regret that 
considerations of space, as well as of the special 
objects of the Selborne Society, prevent us from publishing all 
these wonderful tales, but we are unwilling that they should be 
entirely lost, and therefore wish to intimate to our correspondents 
that there are several of our contemporaries who have more 
space at their disposal, and who would probably gladly receive 
* Erysimum asperum f. nov. nanum. Only 61 niillim. high, flowers yellow 
and of typical size. Timber line above Micawber Mine, Custer Co., Colorado. 
