y have been distributed at wide intervals throughout a
discontinuous mountain chain some 1,500 miles in length, from the
Pyrenees to the Eastern Carpathians?" Mr. Ball's remarks, indeed, just
touch upon a very important characteristic of all the so-called _Alpine
plants_. In Europe they chiefly occur in Scandinavia and the central and
southern mountain ranges, whilst they are mostly absent from the
intervening lowlands. Again, we find a large number of species in the
mountains of Central Asia and in some of the North American mountains.
Almost all species of Alpine plants, in fact, are examples of
discontinuous distribution; and this, as every naturalist knows, is
always, in both animals and plants, a proof of antiquity.

The glacial or Alpine flora is very old, and must have originated long
before the Ice Age. But it might be urged, why should these plants be
now almost confined to the Arctic regions and the higher mountain
ranges, where the temperature undoubtedly is very low, if they had
originated during a pre-glacial period probably much milder than the
present? The answer can be given by those who have made Alpine plants
their special study, and who have attempted to grow them by
administering to them a temperature and such climatic conditions as to
be most conducive to good health. We should all expect these plants to
be very robust, and especially to be able to stand extremely low
temperatures. But, strange to say, the very opposite is the case.
Professor Blytt tells us (p. 19) that "Arctic and Alpine species in the
Christiania Botanic Gardens endure the strongest summer heat without
injury, while they are often destroyed when not sufficiently covered
during winter." The English climate then, one would think, ought to suit
these plants, since the winters are not too cold; but we find that at
Kew Gardens the large collection of Alpine plants have to be wintered in
frames under glass in order to keep them in good health; and Professor
Dyer, the Director of the Gardens, thinks they are mostly intolerant of
very low temperatures (compare also pp. 161-164).

Such being the constitution of Alpine plants, how could they possibly
have originated during the Glacial period and wandered from the
mountains into the plains, across numbers of formidable barriers, often
exposed to icy winds, for thousands of miles? As a matter of fact,
Alpine plants have survived in the high North and in the Alps because
they are there perman