EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENT ON PLANTS. 127 
Dwarfing correlated with progressive change of colour. — We have 
seen that alpine plants are often dwarfed, and also frequently 
bear flowers of brilliant colours, tending to blue and pink — that 
is, to that part of our colour-series which is developmentally 
highest. 
A good example of the correlation of such changes is afforded 
in Wet Mountain Valley by the loco weed, Oxytropis lamberti , 
which is so injurious to horses. In moist and fertile situations 
the plant grows rank and tall, producing whitish flowers ; but 
when growing on the open prairie, or in other dry places, it 
becomes dwarfed and reduced in all its parts, with crimson 
flowers which go purple in drying.* 
The reason of the colour -changes. — Thus it would appear, that 
dwarfing is useful or necessary at high altitudes, and whether 
originating in normal variation, or from the direct influence of 
environment, is preserved by natural selection. A progressive 
change in the colours of the flowers is correlated with extreme 
metabolism, and a reduction, or rather transference of growth- 
energy, whereby small plants with highly developed flowers are 
produced. Hence, as it would seem, the blueness of alpine 
flowers is not a result of direct selection by bees or otherwise, 
except to the extent of the necessity for conspicuous flowers, but a 
side-result of other causes and other needs, transforming the 
whole organism. f 
The subject of alpine vegetation is a very wide one, and the 
present contribution must only be regarded as a short series of 
notes on numerous points, each one of which might well form 
the subject of a lengthy discussion. 
T. D. A. Cockerell. 
[We are glad to be able to congratulate all interested in the 
study of natural history on the appointment of our valued 
correspondent, Mr. Cockerell, to the Curatorship of the Jamaica 
Museum. There are few men better qualified by previous 
experience and a passion for natural history to utilise the 
splendid opportunities he will have there ; and his recent 
marriage has given him a companion whose love for nature is 
only less keen than his own. They will have the good wishes 
of all Selbornians. — Ed., N. Ah] 
II. Aquatic Conditions. 
Since reading Professor Henslow’s able articles on Environ- 
ment, I have taken several notes on the subject, in the cases of 
* Oxytropis lamberti f. nov. vivida . Silky : flowering stems over seven inches 
high, flowers bright purplish-crimson, with indistinct purplish veins, central por- 
tion of standard white with well-marked purple veins. Leaves (including stalk) 
over four inches long ; leaflets lanceolate (on smaller leaves tending to ovate) about 
15 to a leaf, silky-hairy on both sides. Flowers about 15 on a stalk. West Cliff, 
Colorado, near the waterworks, a clump in flower, June 3rd, 1889. This is de- 
scribed from a well-developed example of the “ red loco” ; other forms are much 
more reduced. 
t See Nature, Jan. 1st, 1891, p. 207. 
