448 A TEXTBOOK OF GENERAL BOTANY 
forest passes into elfin wood, which consists of stunted and 
twisted trees (Fig. 499). Above the elfin wood there is often 
an area of dwarf shrubs, which in turn gives way to alpine 
meadow (Figs. 500, 501). This consists of a short, xerophytie, 
matted vegetation of grasses or dicotyledonous herbs, or both. 
Where conditions are favorable this vegetation extends to the 

Fig. 508. Another two-storied forest on Mount Maquiling, Philippine 
Islands, at an elevation of seven hundred and forty meters 
region of perpetual snow. As in the arctic tundra, the flowers 
of the alpine meadow are large in comparison with the dwarf 
plants (Fig. 501). 
On moist tropical mountains the three-storied rain forests give 
way to a lower forest, which often consists of two stories, and 
which in many respects resembles the subtropical rain forest 
(Figs. 502, 503). It is less rich in species of trees than is the 
tropical rain forest and contains fewer woody vines and, usually, 
a smaller percentage of phanerogamic epiphytes, while epiphytic 
