Transcriber’s Notes:
Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
in the original text.
Equal signs “=” before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold=
in the original text.
Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.
Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
The scale factor for the illustrations has been included in file,
however this will be meaningless in an ebook since we have no
control over how big the displayed image will be.
[Illustration: Mimulus Lewisii Pursh. (⅔ Nat.) Red Monkey-Flower.]
Alpine Flora
of the
Canadian Rocky Mountains
By
Stewardson Brown
Curator of Herbarium Academy of Natural Sciences
Philadelphia
Illustrated with Water-Colour Drawings and Photographs
By
Mrs. Charles Schäffer
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1907
COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
OFFERED TO THE LOVERS OF ALPINE
FLORÆ IN THE MEMORY OF DR. CHARLES
SCHÄFFER OF PHILADELPHIA, WHO WAS
AMONG THE PIONEER BOTANISTS OF THE
CANADIAN ROCKIES, AND WHO EARLY
RECOGNISED THIS REGION AS A NEW
AND INTERESTING FIELD FOR STUDY
PREFACE
The present volume, though prepared in manual form, is meant only as
a guide to the rich and interesting flora of the Canadian Rockies and
Selkirks or those portions traversed by the Canadian Pacific Railway
between Banff and Glacier. While many of the plants herein described
are found throughout the entire region, yet the species characteristic
of the two mountain ranges are vastly different. For the most part
those of the Rockies might be characterised as plants adapted to
the withstanding of severe conditions of drouth and cold, being
mostly low and tufted, with small surfaces of leaf exposure, either
thick and leathery or in many instances with an ample covering of
protecting hairs; while those of the Selkirks, owing to the more humid
atmospheric conditions, are essentially moisture-loving forms, with a
luxuriant growth of stems and leaves; it is only where the conditions
are similar in the two regions that we find the same or similar forms
existing. Few of the more characteristic Rocky Mountain species extend
west of the divide, while of those of the Selkirks, few extend east
of it, except where there is a luxuriant forest growth, with the
consequent retention of moisture, and then only at altitudes of from
2000 to 3000 feet greater.
Contrasting the plants of this region with those of the European Alps
it is interesting to note, that while the species are for the most
part vastly different, yet there is a certain close resemblance in the
families and genera which are represented; the Anemones are here, but
not in the scarlets and crimsons, running more to whites and purples,
and so are the Buttercups, dwarf many of them, but with large, showy
flowers; the Saxifrages and Drabas are innumerable as are the Vetches
and also the Heaths, but the latter with fewer and very different
species. Some plants, however, like the White Mountain Avens (_Dryas
octopetala_), the Butterwort (_Pinguicula vulgaris_), the Moss Campion
(_Silene acaulis_), the Mountain Cranberry (_Vitis-idæa_) and the
Low Cranberry (_Oxycoccus_), the One-flowered Wintergreen (_Moneses
uniflora_), the Forget-me-not (_Myosotis alpestris_) and others are
found on both sides of the Atlantic, yet we have no such array of
Primroses or Gentians as our European brothers, though both genera are
represented with us, while on the other hand they can boast of nothing
comparable to our Indian Paint-Brush, found throughout the region on
the river shores and bars during late June and early July and later
through the summer in its innumerable forms and colours in the moist
alpine meadows and slopes.
The ferns and their allies with the more striking of the trees and
shrubs have been included in the present work, together with the
majority of the herbaceous flowering plants, though some of the largely
represented but less striking groups such as the Grasses, Sedges,
and Willows have been entirely omitted, not seeming of sufficient
general interest to warrant the space required for their intelligent
treatment. The species are arranged in accordance with their scientific
relationships, with keys to the genera and a general key to the
families. Among the illustrations herein contained, many of the plants
of the Northwest are figured for the first time.
Acknowledgment is here made to Messrs. David McNicoll, Robert Kerr, and
other officials and employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company
through whose courtesy was made possible the gathering of the data for
the basis of this work.