Summer Flowers of the High Alps

THIS large and stately plant is common in mountain pastures from the lower levels right up to 7000 feet. It has finely divided leaves and bright yellow globe-like flowers, borne on long stalks which are usually unbranched. It is evidently a near relation of the buttercups, but differs from them in the possession of numerous brightly-coloured sepals, which enclose and conceal the much smaller tongue-shaped petals. Although not exclusively Alpine, being found all over Central Europe, in Scandinavia, and the north of England, it has been included in this series because it is sure to be noticed by anyone visiting Switzerland for the first time.

It flowers in May, June, and July, and flourishes best in damp places. A much smaller form, bearing only a single flower, is found exclusively on high mountains (var. humilis). It should probably be regarded merely as a variety and not as a distinct species.

The Globe Flower, the Anemones, and the two species of Aconitum illustrated in the two following plates are all examples of the buttercup order, the Ranunculaceæ. The common yellow buttercup so abundantly found in Alpine meadows is Ranunculus montanus. This species very closely resembles the ordinary upright buttercup of our English fields (Ranunculus acris), which it replaces in the Alps, but differs from it in the possession of a solid (not hollow) stem and a hairy disc beneath the seeds. It is a somewhat smaller plant, with less numerous—generally only two or three—flowers.