
26 - FLOWERING PLANTS 
observations from which to generalize. The following Plant 
Associations are those which have so far been most fully 
described : 
1. Mountain or Alpine vegetation. 
. Moorland, including bogs. 
. Woodland, as that of Pine, Birch, Oak, Beech. 
. Pasture vegetation. 
; Meadow: —;, 
Aquatic, 
- Hedgerow _,, 
“Im OF FP WLW LH 
Alpine Alpine plants are found only at great altitudes, 
Vegetation. or on the sea-coast. Ben Lawers, the third 
highest mountain of the British Isles, is one of the richest in 
alpine plants, whilst in West Ireland many of the plants found 
on the mountains and high moors in other parts of the British 
Isles grow right down to the sea-level. Thus the level varies 
in different parts of Britain and Ireland, as would be expected 
from what has already been said in Chapter I. 
Alpine plants are generally small and compact, able to 
dety winter frosts and summer droughts. They are peren- 
nials, for, owing to the winters being long and the summers 
short, they would have no time to ripen their fruit if they 
had to grow from the seed each year; but being perennial, 
they prepare during the winter for the growth of the next 
summer, and as the flowers are borne on short stems, which 
do not take long to grow, the plant is ready to flower almost 
as the summer comes. 
The brilliant colours of alpine plants are hardly realized in 
England, but in Switzerland this is evident to the most casual 
observer ; the blue of the gentians, the red saxifrages, the 
bright pink of some of the campions, the reddish-purple of the 
willow-herbs, are instances that may be quoted. Even in 
Britain there are a few conspicuous examples of brilliant flowers 
among small mountain plants, as Moss Campion (Stene 
acaulis), White Dryas, etc. It is suggested that the brilliant 
colouring of alpine plants is due to the brighter light and to 
