Part 7

The Dull-Flowered Sweet Clover or Alpine Sainfoin. Esparcette des Alpes. Dunkler Süssklee.]

The White Dryas

(DRYAS OCTOPETALA)

The White Dryas, or Silver-herb as the Swiss call it, is a characteristic Alpine plant which is found all over Switzerland between 3000 and 8000 feet, and even descends to the plains with some of the rivers. It is common in dry mountain pastures and rocky places, and seems to grow best on limestone soil. Often the bare surfaces of rocks and boulders are thickly covered with its matted growth, which persists from year to year as soil gradually accumulates around it.

The thick dense rootstock gives rise to long trailing branches, which extend in all directions and bear the leaves and flowers. Associated with the root tips is a curious fungus growth, which from its constant presence is thought to be of value to the plant. The tough leathery evergreen leaves have rolled back notched edges. Their upper surfaces are dark green, smooth, and polished, and devoid of the stomata or little pores by which air is absorbed by green plants generally; the lower surfaces are covered by thick white felt-like hairs. The flowers, which appear from May till July, resemble those of the Alpine Anemone, but are smaller. They have usually eight petals, hence the Latin name. Inside the petals are a large number of stamens arranged in the form of a ring, and inside these again a honey secreting gland which surrounds the mass of closely packed carpels in the centre of the flower. The carpels bear long silky styles, which grow out into beautiful feathery appendages as the seeds ripen—another point of resemblance to the Alpine Anemone. The carpels become ready for pollination before the stamens shed their pollen. Then the outermost stamens open, and only after several days have elapsed do the innermost stamens become mature. A little consideration will show how wonderfully this arrangement is adapted to favour the cross-fertilisation of the carpels by pollen brought from another flower by the agency of insect visitors. Should this, for any reason, fail, self-fertilisation will almost certainly be effected by means of the pollen from the innermost stamens. If a large number of plants of the White Dryas be carefully examined some will be found with flowers containing both stamens and carpels, as above described, while others, less numerous, have flowers with stamens only. These will of course produce no seeds. Some plants, again, will be seen to bear both kind of flowers. The White Dryas is found in the mountainous districts of Europe and in the Arctic regions of the new and old worlds. The plant will be readily recognised, for its leaves are quite different from those of an anemone.

DRYAS OCTOPETALA. L.

The White Dryas or Silver-herb. Dryade à huit pétales. Echte Silberwurz.]

The Alpine Rose

(ROSA ALPINA)

THE Alpine Rose or Dog-Rose must not be confounded with the Alpenrose. The resemblance is only in the names, for the Alpenrose so much beloved by the Swiss is really a rhododendron and quite a different plant. The Alpine Rose is a shrub sometimes 8 or 10 feet high, and only a single branch is shown in the photograph. It is found on the borders of mountain woods and in bushy places, from the lower slopes up to about 7000 feet, and flowers in May, June, and July. The leaves consist of seven to eleven leaflets, and there are broad stipules at the base of each leaf. The sweet-scented flowers are of a rich rose-red colour. The sepals are exceptionally long and project beyond the petals; this is especially noticeable in the bud. The fruit or hip is flask-shaped and rather narrowed at the base. Thorns are as a rule absent from the flowering branches, but are generally to be found on the lower and younger shoots, which point downwards. Sometimes they are absent altogether. The Alpine Rose is found pretty abundantly in the mountain woods of Southern and Central Europe, but does not extend to the North. Thus it grows in the Pyrenees, Auvergne, the Balkans, and in one part of the Black Forest.

The Dog-Roses are phenomenally difficult to distinguish from one another, and as many as fifty Swiss species are described. The characteristics above mentioned, and especially the high elevation at which it is found, will assist in the recognition of the present species. By the arrangement and character of the leaves and spines and the shape of the fruit, the Alpine Rose itself has been sub-divided into some thirty sub-species.

ROSA ALPINA. L.

The Alpine Rose. Eglantine des Alpes. Alpen-Heckenrose.]

Fleischer’s Willow-Herb

(EPILOBIUM FLEISCHERI)

This plant is fairly common in the Alps and grows in dry stony places, especially amongst the boulders of dried-up torrent beds and beside some of the streams; with some of these it descends towards the plains. Like not a few of the less common Alpine plants, where it is found at all, it is usually met with in great abundance. The flowers which open out in July are of great beauty, and their arrangements to prevent self-pollination are of considerable interest. The stamens first ripen, and while these are held erect the stigma is bent downward and the four segments into which it is divided above are closely pressed together. (Most of the flowers are in this stage in the photograph.) When the pollen is shed the stamens bend downward, and not till then does the stigma rise in the centre of the flower and its four lips become separated from one another.

The flowers of Fleischer’s Willow-herb closely resemble those of the Rose-bay (Epilobium angustifolium), common in bushy places all over England, Switzerland, and Central Europe. But the Rose-bay is a bigger plant with tall, usually unbranched stem and much larger leaves, which are veined underneath. As will be seen by the photograph, the leaves of Fleischer’s Willow-herb are narrow and lance-shaped, and the few veins that can be made out are all parallel to one another. Closely resembling the plant here photographed is the Rosemary-leaved Willow-herb (Epilobium rosmarinifolium). Its leaves are usually more numerous, narrower, and more strap-shaped, and its stem is taller and, as a rule, more branched. But the most constant difference between the two plants is to be found in the length of the stalk which bears the stigma (style). This is as long as the stamens in Epilobium rosmarinifolium, but only half this length in Epilobium Fleischeri.

EPILOBIUM FLEISCHERI. HOCHST.

Fleischer’s Willow-Herb. Epilobe des Moraines. Weidenröschen.]

The Mountain House-Leek

(SEMPERVIVUM MONTANUM)

Several varieties of House-leek are found in Switzerland. They grow in dry, rocky places, where moisture is scarce and where they are exposed to the fierce heat of the sun. Their succulent leaves, covered by a thick, almost leathery, cuticle, are arranged in rosettes, and serve as storehouses for water. The plants grow slowly and in clusters, and when each one has accumulated sufficient strength it throws up a long central stalk bearing star-like flowers, and dies as the seeds mature. The house-leeks are reproduced not only by means of seeds, but also by runners, which extend outward and bear a small rosette of leaves at their extremities. Some of these can be made out in the photograph. Some of the Saxifrages closely resemble the house-leeks in habit of growth, but are less succulent.

The Mountain House-leek is common all over the Alps between 4000 and 8000 feet, or even higher in certain parts. It seems to grow best on primary granitic rock. The wedge-shaped rosette leaves are covered with short glandular hairs. The rosettes are unfortunately not well seen in the photograph, the leaves that can be made out being mainly those of a species of Primula. From the centre of the rosette the flower stalk arises. It is some 3 to 6 inches long and is covered with succulent leaves with reddish tips. Above it divides into branches which bear the beautiful star-like flowers. The flowers, which appear in July and August, are usually of a pale red colour with a darker central stripe to each petal. A variety with cream-coloured petals is very occasionally found.

The Cobweb House-leek (Sempervivum arachnoideum) is not unlike the plant here photographed, but will be readily distinguished from it by the long white hairs borne at the tips of the rosette leaves, which become interwoven with those of adjoining leaves to form a spider’s-web-like structure. Its flowers are a brighter crimson than those of the Mountain House-leek.

SEMPERVIVUM MONTANUM. L.

The Mountain House-leek. Joubarbe des Montagnes. Berg-Hauswurz.]

Sempervivum Funckii

Not unlike the Mountain House-leek photographed on the previous page is Sempervivum Funckii. It is not a common plant, being only found in Eastern Switzerland, the Tyrol, the Carpathians, and a few other mountainous districts, and does not seem to have acquired any local name. Compared with the Mountain House-leek the rosettes of leaves are a little smaller. They are covered with much longer hairs, which are not, however, twisted together into a spider’s web like those of the Cobweb House-leek. As will be seen the flowers are of a beautiful pale pink colour, and each petal has a stripe of a darker tint running down its centre. The plant grows in rocky places.