Part 4

The Evergreen Saxifrage is one of the most abundant. It grows in moist rocky places, at the foot of glaciers, and on the banks of mountain streams and waterfalls. It ascends to 9000 feet in places and descends almost to the plains with some of the rivers. The plant grows in tufts. The erect flower stems are covered by the narrow, succulent leaves, which have hairs along each margin; they terminate in branches bearing four to eight flowers. The star-like flowers, which appear in July and August, are made up of five brightly coloured petals alternating with five green sepals. The petals may be lemon yellow with orange red spots, or, as in the specimen here photographed (var. _atrorubens_), pure orange red. Next comes a ring of ten stamens with dark red pollen, and then the showy ring-like nectary and the two styles in the centre of the flower. The honey is so obvious and abundant that insects of all kinds—flies, bees, butterflies, and beetles—visit the flowers; but self-fertilisation is, in the main, prevented by the pollen being shed before the ovaries with their stigmata are ready for fertilisation. The Evergreen Saxifrage is to be found in all parts of the Alps, and is also met with in the Arctic regions.

With the help of the photograph no difficulty should be experienced in recognising the plant. From the Stonecrops, notably the Biting Stonecrop (_Sedum acre_), it is recognised by its possession of two styles. But several of the other Saxifrages resemble it much more closely. The Rough Saxifrage (_S. aspera_) has paler flowers and more hairy leaves. The Moss-like Saxifrage (_S. bryoides_) has a moss-like growth and the flowers are borne on long, usually unbranched, flower stalks. _Saxifraga Sequieri_ has more flattened leaves, and _Saxifraga Hirculus_, which is rare, has two raised spots at the base of each yellow petal.

The Large Astrantia

(_ASTRANTIA MAJOR_)

This tall and handsome plant is common from the lower mountain region up to 6000 feet all over Switzerland. It grows in meadows, bushy places, and mountain woods. Several long-stalked leaves rise directly from the root stock. They are of a large size, circular in general outline, and consist of five or six radiating lobes with deep depressions between them. The branched flower-stem, perhaps some 2 or 3 feet in height, bears relatively few leaves. Its various branches terminate in what appear to be single flowers, but what are really masses of tiny flowerets with short stalks all of the same length, surrounded by a sort of cup made up of radiating leaves. The individual flowers are greenish-white, often with a pinkish tinge, and the radiating leaves are pale pink, with a central green stripe and greenish tip. The flower-masses of the Astrantia are an excellent example of the way in which small and unattractive flowers combine together and form a structure, both large and conspicuous, to attract insect visitors. These floral societies are even better seen in the large natural order the Compositæ, of which our next four photographs are examples. The Large Astrantia flowers in July and August, and is met with in many of the mountain woods of Central Europe as well as in the Alps. It is occasionally found in England.

The Small Astrantia (_Astrantia minor_) is a much smaller and more slender plant. The notches in its leaves extend right up to the stem, thus completely separating the eight or nine leaflets from one another. The Hare’s-ear (_Bupleurum ranunculoides_) somewhat resembles the Large Astrantia, but its flower-masses are entirely devoid of any tinge of pink and its leaves are strap-shaped.

The Alpine Starwort or Alpine Aster

(_ASTER ALPINUS_)

The beautiful little Alpine Aster is found all over the Alps. It flowers in July, August, and September, but occasionally it may be found in bloom even as early as May. It grows in dry Alpine pastures, sunny meadows, and rocky places, not infrequently in company with the Edelweiss, between 4000 and 9000 feet; in a few places it extends much lower. The plant consists of a rosette of woolly tufted leaves, with a central stem bearing the solitary flower-head. In the higher regions the flower-stem is short, perhaps only 4 inches in length, but nearer the plains it may be 8 or 9 inches. In any case, however, the flower-head is large, an inch or two in diameter, and conspicuous on account of the broad purple ray florets, which contrast strongly with the golden yellow centre. The Alpine Aster is very widely distributed, being found in Northern Asia, Arctic America, and in most of the mountain ranges of Central and Southern Europe, but not in the far North.

Closely resembling this plant is the Alpine Fleabane (_Erigeron alpina_). It has narrower ray florets, which are arranged in several rows and not in a single row like those of the Alpine Aster, and a branched flower-stem bearing several separate flower-heads. The much rarer _Aster Amellus_ differs from the Alpine Aster in the possession of a branched flower-stem and blue, not purple, ray florets.

The Cat’s-Foot, Mountain Everlasting or Mountain Cudweed

(_ANTENNARIA DIOICA_)

The Cat’s-foot, which is, after all, perhaps the most suitable name for this curious plant, is abundant in the Alps from the lowest levels right up to 7000 or 8000 feet. It is found in dry places, on moors and heaths, and in dry open woods. It sometimes forms an unwished-for inhabitant of the mountain pastures where it is disliked by the herdsmen, for it is an undesirable plant for fodder. The leaves, like those of the Edelweiss, are covered with white woolly hairs, and the flower stems are also hairy. The flowers, which are pink or white, are dioicious, that is to say, the same flower does not produce both pollen and seed, and seed-forming and pollen-producing flowers do not occur on the same plant. As the pollen is not carried by the wind from flower to flower, the plant is entirely dependent upon its insect visitors for the fertilisation of its seeds, and without them no seeds will be formed. The plant is also spread by means of runners, which extend over the soil and take root at intervals. The Swiss peasants make wreaths of the Mountain Everlasting, which they wear as a charm, especially on Ascension Day. The plant is widely distributed, and is found in the North of England and Scotland, as well as most parts of Europe and the Polar regions.

The Carpathians Cudweed (_Antennaria carpathica_), which is also common in Switzerland, differs from the Cat’s-foot in that its flowers are brown rather than white or pink, and that it does not send out runners.

The Arnica

(_ARNICA MONTANA_)

A bright conspicuous plant is the Arnica, with its yellow star-like flower-heads. It grows in meadows, pastures, and on sunny moors, and is widely distributed in the Alps, from the lower mountain regions up to 8000 feet. It is much less common in limestone than in other districts. Four broad green leaves grow from the root in the form of a cross. In the centre of these rises the erect flower-stalk some 8 or 9 inches long, and covered with glandular hairs. On the flower-stalk are borne the one or two pairs of leaves, without stalks, and arranged opposite to one another. The flower-heads are drooping in the bud, but when they open they are large and conspicuous and of a deep yellow colour. They give forth a faint, resinous, not very pleasing, odour. The outer or ray florets of the flower-head have long projecting strap-shaped petals. Their purpose is to attract insects to the floral society, and the less conspicuous florets in the centre of the flower-head produce just as good seeds. At first but a single flower-head is formed, but later on, if the plant is vigorous, buds appear in the axils of the opposite stem-leaves, and two more flower-heads appear. This is what has happened in the two specimens here photographed, and a second pair of buds is seen in one of them. It is interesting to note that a mould-like fungus is found constantly associated with the roots of the plant. It is believed that the two plants grow together to the mutual advantage of each, the fungus assisting the Arnica to obtain nourishment from the soil, and in return receiving from it some of the organic matter manufactured from the air with the help of light. The root has a bitter aromatic taste. From it is made the tincture of Arnica, which is often applied to bruises, apparently, however, without any very considerable influence upon them.

Several other Alpine plants, the Doronicum and Aronics, for example, have bright yellow flower-heads like the Arnica, but as no similar Alpine plant has pairs of opposite leaves on the flower-stem, the recognition of the Arnica becomes a very simple matter.

The Spiny Fuller’s Thistle

(_CIRCIUM SPINOSISSIMUM_)

(_See Frontispiece_)

This stately and beautiful plant is common in all parts of the Alps, but is found nowhere else. It grows in moist places in the meadows and pastures, and beside the streams, between 4000 and 7000 feet. It is generally looked upon as a noxious weed by the herdsmen, but in one or two places the upper and more succulent parts are gathered and preserved as pigs’ food for the winter.

The thick evergreen leaves, armed with formidable spines, are paler at the upper part of the stem where they surround the large brown flower-head. Usually but a single flower-head is borne by each plant, but each one produces some hundreds of seeds. Each seed has a feathery wing-like appendage, so that it may be more easily distributed by the wind. The Spiny Fuller’s Thistle is usually some 3½ or 4 feet high, as was the specimen photographed, but in high altitudes the plant is more bushy and stunted. Under these conditions it is not unlike the Stemless or Alpine Carline Thistle (_Carlina acaulis_), which, in spite of its name, has sometimes a stem some 8 or 10 inches long. But the Carline Thistle has a larger and more flattened flower-head, and when the flowers are in bloom they are of a purple colour, though they soon turn brown as they get dried up.

Probably the nearest relation of the plant here photographed is the Common Fuller’s Thistle (_Circium oloraceum_), abundant in moist places, both in the Alps and lowlands. It is a plant that would seem to be protected by its resemblance to other members of its family, for though it appears spiny, it is soft and succulent, and bears not a single prickle anywhere. The leaves, which are sparsely distributed on the slender stem, are of a dirty grey-green colour, and though as tall as its spiny relative, the plant is much less robust.

The Round-Headed Rampion

(_PHYTEUMA ORBICULARE_)

In England we have only two kinds of Rampion and both are rare, but in Switzerland there are no less than ten different species, with blue and white flowers, and some of them are extremely abundant. One of the commonest of the blue-flowered varieties is here photographed. It grows in mountain pastures and poor meadows between 3000 and 8000 feet, and is found not only in the Alps but all over Central Europe, though absent in the North. It flowers in July, and the size of the plant undergoes considerable variation according to the altitude at which it grows. Sometimes the flower-stalks are but 3 or 4 inches long, at others 16 or 18. The leaves, which grow from the root stock, have serrated edges, and are frequently a good deal larger than those of the specimen photographed. The methods adopted by the plant for the distribution of its pollen and the fertilisation of its seeds through the agency of insect visitors are of particular interest. Each flower of the flower-head is formed of a blue tubular structure (corolla), which is at first closed above. In the centre of this is the style covered by short hairs and surrounded by the five stamens. While still in the bud the stamens shed their pollen, which collects in the tube around the style and is retained in position by the short hairs. Now the flower opens at its tip, and while maintaining its tubular character above splits longitudinally below into five or six segments, so that linear openings are formed. The result is that when an insect settles on the flower the tubular corolla is very easily depressed, exposing the style surrounded on all sides by pollen. Any pollen that is not removed by the insect falls from the style, for the short hairs on the style by which it is held in position very soon fade. The style then splits above into three segments, exposing for the first time the sticky stigmatic surface now ready for pollination.

The Round-headed Rampion is one of the five Swiss species with rounded, not elongated, flower-heads. Three of them can at once be put aside, because they are usually much smaller plants and have less than twelve flowers to a flower-head, whereas the Round-headed Rampion has always more. _Phyteuma Scheuchzeri_ is distinguished from this plant by its lilac flowers, longer stalked and usually broader basal leaves, and especially by the circle of leaves immediately beneath the flower-head, which are longer than the flowers themselves.

The Bearded Bell-flower or Campanula

(_CAMPANULA BARBATA_)

Of the numerous Bell-flowers which abound in the Alps none is more quaint and beautiful than the one here photographed. The whole plant, stem, leaves, and flowers, is covered with short hairs, but around the mouth of the bell the hairs are longer and stiffer, and pure white. It is interesting to note that when cultivated in rockeries in England the hairy character of the plant almost entirely disappears. Some three to five pendent flowers are borne by each flower-stalk, all turned in the same direction. Occasionally a single flowered variety is met with, usually at a high altitude. The ordinary pale blue colour of the flower may disappear entirely, and specimens with pure white blossoms are not infrequent. The plant is found abundantly all over the Alps and Sub-Alps, in meadows and pastures, and to a less extent in open woods, from 3000 feet almost to the snowline (7000 to 9000 feet). It is usually less abundant on limestone than on other rocks. The Bearded Bell-flower is also met with in the Carpathians, Jura, southern parts of Norway, and in other mountainous districts in Europe. It is probably a native of the Alps.

No difficulty will be experienced in recognising the Bearded Campanula. No other Bell-flower has little projections between each of the five teeth of the calyx which are turned back towards the stem. Only one other Bell-flower (_Campanula Zoysii_), and that a species not always recognised as distinct, has a light blue corolla with long hairs around its mouth. But here there is a constriction just immediately below the opening of the bell, and the plant is smaller and very rare, and occurs only in Eastern Switzerland.

The Dwarf Hair-Bell or Bell-Flower

(_CAMPANULA PUSILLA_)

The photograph gives a good general idea of the tufted growth of the Dwarf Bell-flower. The plant is quite small, rarely more than 3 or 4 inches high, and forms dense close-growing tufts of some size. The smooth or hairy flower-stalks bear one to six pale blue flowers and the narrow leaves, which are most numerous and have serrated edges below. There are also short flowerless branches covered with similar leaves, and a few broader leaves with longer stalks grow directly from the root stock. These last are not well seen in the photograph. The plant is very abundant in dry rocky and sandy places, in dried up torrent-beds, by the roadside and on the tops of walls. It is found from the lower mountain region up to some 8000 feet, and descends with some of the rivers towards the plains. It is also found in the Jura and parts of the Black Forest.

The Dwarf Bell-flower will be recognised from most of the other species of Campanula which abound in Switzerland by its broad basal leaves, its narrow stem leaves, and its erect seed pod. But, unfortunately, there are three other Swiss species to which this description equally well applies. Of these the rare _Campanula excisa_ is at once picked out by the deep rounded clefts between the five segments of its bell-shaped flower. _Campanula Scheuchzeri_ is a larger plant of more open and less tufted growth and with fewer flowerless leafy shoots. Its bell-shaped flowers are usually of a darker blue, are more conical, and have a wider opening; they are, in fact, less truly bell-shaped. _Campanula rotundifolia_, the common Hair-bell of our heaths and downs, which occurs also in Switzerland, is slightly taller than our plant and has also more cone-shaped flowers. Its flower buds are held erect, while those of the other three Bell-flowers we are considering are dependent. In a general way, the low stature and tufted growth of the Dwarf Bell-flower will, in most cases, suffice for its recognition.

The Hairy-Leaved Alpenrose

(_RHODODENDRON HIRSUTUM_)

The Alpenrose is the commonest and best known of all the Alpine plants. It abounds almost everywhere; were it not so it would have become practically extinct years before, for it is gathered unmercifully. Nor are the visitors to Switzerland alone responsible for this. Every Sunday throughout the summer, crowds of the native peasants, both children and adults, may be seen returning home, each bearing in his arms an immense bunch of the favourite flower, and often with a second and smaller nosegay tied round the top of his alpenstock.

There are really two distinct species of Alpenrose, the Hairy-leaved (_Rhododendron hirsutum_), and the Rusty-leaved (_Rhododendron ferrugineum_) varieties, and a hybrid or cross between them is also less commonly found. Both varieties are low evergreen shrubs with thick leathery leaves which only fade after three or four years. Both have raised brown spots on the lower surfaces of the leaves, only they are much more numerous on the Rusty-leaved species, so that the under surface of the leaf is completely covered with them while they are only sparsely scattered on the leaf of the Hairy-leaved variety. They contain a balsam, and are thought to be of use to the plant in preventing its drying up. They may also assist in the absorption of water. The flowers of both species are admirably adapted for cross-fertilisation by the humble-bees which visit them. The stamens first mature, and not until the great part of the pollen is shed does the stigma lengthen and become ready for pollination. The long hairs growing from the stalks which bear the stamens interlock with similar hairs on the inside of the corolla, and thus effectively prevent the entrance of smaller insects which might visit the flower in search of the abundant honey, but which would fail to effect its fertilisation. The flowers of the species here illustrated are usually a little paler in colour, slightly smaller, and open a little later than those of the Rusty-leaved variety. The plant usually forms a lower and more thickly branched shrub, with rather shorter twigs. But the essential distinguishing features between the two are to be found in their leaves. The leaves of _Rhododendron hirsutum_ are usually broader and less pointed, green underneath, and have well-marked hairs all round their edges. In _Rhododendron ferrugineum_ the leaves tend to be narrower, darker green above, and brown underneath, and are entirely devoid of hairs, but have rolled back edges. Both species are found abundantly in rocky places between 4000 and 8000 feet, and flower in June, July, and August, and may be seen at their best in July. The Rusty-leaved variety seems to prefer a rather moister spot and may also be found on peat. It is most abundant on primary granitic rock, while the other species grows best on limestone.

The Lesser Winter-Green

(_PYROLA MINOR_)

The plant here photographed derives its English name from the evergreen character of its leaves. It is in fact a British plant, being found somewhat rarely in Scotland and in the North, but is much more common in Switzerland. It grows among the moss in shady woods, from the plains right up to the tree-limit and may even reach 8000 feet or higher, where protected by shrubs and bushes. The plant is widely distributed in Switzerland and is also found in Vosges, Pyrenees, and Jura. It flowers in July.

The Lesser Winter-Green will be recognised by its short, straight style, which does not project beyond the flower and which is closely surrounded by the stamens which converge toward it. Of the four other Swiss Pyrolas which resemble the above, two only are at all common, and these two will alone be mentioned. _Pyrola secunda_ will be recognised by its longer straight style, which projects beyond the petals and by its greenish white flowers, which are all turned in the same direction. Its leaves are more pointed and have deeper notches than those of our plant. _Pyrola rotundifolia_ has also a style that projects beyond the petals, but it is curved so that the stigmatic surface at its extremity is far below the centre of the flower.

The Stemless Gentian

(_GENTIANA ACAULIS_)

Many species of Gentian are met with in the Alps. One of the best known of the smaller varieties is the Stemless Gentian or Gentianella, which is a frequent inhabitant of heaths, meadows and pastures all over the higher parts of Switzerland, and is also found in the Jura and Carpathians, being less common on limestone soil and more abundant on primary granitic rock. The plant grows at an altitude of 4000 to 8000 feet, and flowers in June, July, and August. Occasionally it descends much lower and may even be found below 1500 feet in a few special localities. Each plant consists of a small rosette of leaves, a very short stem, and a single bell-shaped flower of deep azure blue. Very often two or three plants are found growing together and a small group such as that photographed is not infrequent. Occasionally also specimens with pale blue, rose red or even white flowers may be seen. When the flower has been fertilised, and while the seeds are maturing, the brightly coloured corolla shrivels up and surrounds the seed vessel, at the same time becoming of a green colour and perhaps taking on a vegetative function. The leaves are rather leathery, narrow, and pointed.