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ALPHON'SO. See Alfonso.

ALPHON'SXJS MARIA DI LIGT70RI. See LicroRi.

AL'PINE CLTJBS. Societies for the promo- tinn of mountain exploration and adventure. Tlip most noted mountain club is the Alpine Club, of England, organized in 18.57. In 1863 it began to publish the Alpine Journal. This organization was followed by others in Europe. The clubs have encouraged geographical explora- tion, not only of European mountains, but of the Himalayas and other Asiatic ranges, the .Andes, the Xew Zealand .lps, etc. There is an exten- sive Alpine literature, which began in 18.59 with the .lpine Club's Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers. In the United States there exist the Sierra Club and the Mazamas, on the Pacific coast, and the Appalachian Jlountain Club (q.v. ).

AL'PINE PLANT. A plant whose natural habitat is in high altitudes. These plants form one of the three great climatic groups of xeruphytes (q.v.), and have in general the ordinary xerophy- tic adaptations. Among the leading peculiarities

of Alpine vegetation theie may be noted (1) The gnarled and twisted aspect of the shrubs and trees; so characteristic is this habit in the mountain pine of Europe that the tree has been called by the Germans Krummholz, i.e., "crooked wood." (2) The vegetation is notably dwarfed. (3) The plant axes are commonly horizontal rather than vertical, and as a result there is a great number of creeping plants. (4) The "cushion (Ger. Polstcr) habit," so common else- where in mosses, is found in many seed plants, which sometimes resemble a brain coral in gen- eral effect. (5) The rosette habit is frequent. (6) The flowers and roots of Alpine plants, in striking contrast to the stems and leaves, are not reduced; they may even be increased. This com- bination makes the roots and flowers appear gigantic, and travelers, as a consequence, are always struck with the relatively large floral development. (7) .lpine leaves show decidedly xerophytic structures, man}- plants having thick- Spring buauties (daijtonia) from the eastern lowlnnds (a) and Alpine diBtricts of the Kooky Mountains (b). Not« that the Alpine form shows great stem reduction, moderate leaf reduction, llowers relatively unchanged, and increased root system.

Cross-section of leaf of Germander {Teucriiiin) from the Aliiine legions (a) and the lowlands (b). Note the greatly- increased feaf thickness and palisade development in the - pine leaf. After Bonnier.

skinned, leathery evergreen leaves, as the pines and rhododendrons, while others have hairy leaves, as the edelweiss. Kerner, Die Abhiin- gif/keit der Pflanzcngestalt von Klima and Boden (1869), and Bonnier, Cultures experimentales dansles hautrs altitudes ( 1888 to date) , have car- ried on some remarkably interesting experiments to determine the influence that Alpine climates exert upon i)lants. Lowland plants were taken into Alpine regions and were found to assume structural adaptations similar to those normally found in Alpine plants but not normally found under lowland conditions. In particular, sub- terranean organs were found to increase in size, while aerial stems became reduced and tended toward horizontality. The leaves became small- er and thicker and often more hairy: sometimes the leaves showed more red coloration. The flowers became relativelv, and in some cases absolutely, larger and more highly colored, and blossoming often took place earlier than in the lowlands. Structurally the leaves showed a thicker cuticle and increased development of palisade cells. Bonnier found that these plants increased in Alpine characters year by year, and