Many arctic animals and plants could not stand the change and followed the retreating ice northward or climbed the mountains. Thus the fauna and flora of the Alps and many lower mountains (Schneekoppe, Brocken) con tain arctic specimens.
Soon a denser covering with vegetation de veloped, immigrations from all sides occurred, a new fauna and flora resulted. Lack of con nection with a region where the old Tertiary forms had survived prevented restocking. Thus we find fewer species and less variety than in North America or East Asia, and only the Ter tiary forms of the three countries are much alike.
Old Germania was moist and cool, had ex tensive swamps and perhaps 75 per cent of her area covered with dense forests.
Flora.— The flora is that common to north ern Europe. Germany lies entirely within the northern forest zone of phytogeography and is pre-eminently a wooded country. Even to-day forests abound (26 per cent of the area; France, 16 per cent; Great Britain, 3 per cent). Man has taken care of the woods, dried out or drained swamps, regulated rivers, planted fields, and thus caused great changes. Little val is left. (North and northeast, Bo hemian Forest.) The flora comprises about 2,200 phanero games, 60 vascular crytogames; 6 coniferous forest trees: fir, spruce, pine, larch, juniper, yew, 40 deciduous forest trees, 20 shrubs.
An alpine flora (one-third of the alpine plants) is found in the Bavarian Alps and spreads along the rivers onto the high plateau. The Sudeten Mountains (with some arctic forms missing in the Alps) and the tops of other high mountains (Brodcen) are isolated centres of alpine plants.
The southern mountainous region (so-called Hercynic flora) is characterized by the fir (Abies alba) and shows a varied flora, the valleys having the Baltic, the mountain slopes a subalpine character. Vine culture is possible only here.
The Baltic flora occupies the northern lowland.
The forest line on the mountain slopes is at about 4,000 feet (Brocken, 3,400; Vosges. 4,264). Above is a zone of trailing trees and shrubs up to about 4,500 feet : Mountain pine (Pinus montana), dwarfed willows and juni pers, rhododendron (in the Alps); above this the true alpine region with its peculiar flora. The highest peaks have only cryptogames (lichens, mosses). The alpine region in Ba varia begins at 5,500 feet, spruces go up to 5,900, larch trees to 6,200. Generally, heights
above 3,500 feet are unfavorable to tree growth and covered with grasses and often heather. In the Alps the region above timber-line is pas ture with many flowers (gentians). Many species which are missing in the arctics probably represent alpine plants of the Tertiary (Edel weiss).
The deciduous forests are diminished by secular changes (natural rotation?) : the spruce (Picea excelsa) is.everywhere gaining ground at the expense of the red beech which, as is almost certain, once crowded out oaks. pines, and birches (known to have happened in Denmark). In West Prussia pines replace oaks and birches.
To-day, deciduous forests occupy only the lower mountain slopes, above are coniferous forests. The Spessart only has retained its old oak and beech forest to the top. The large Buntsandstein area in southwestern Germany not good for agriculture supports magnificent forests.
The pine is typical for the northern low lands and forms forests even on the sand plains. The spruce has spread from the south all over the country. The larch forms groves in the Alps but is not confined to them. The Swiss Stonepine (Pines cembra) occurs in a few places in the Bavarian Alps. The yew once common has almost disappeared and is found only in East and West Prussia, and occasionally in the mountains. The juniper is a tall tree in the East, smaller and rarer in the West, miss ing in East Friesland; a shrub in the mountains and in the heath.
Deciduous forests are usually mixed, beech forests, however, common. The northern limit for the beech is south of KOnigsberg. In the north the oak is most characteristic (two kinds) ; it is the national tree celebrated by songs, poems and myths. Maples, elms, horn beams, birches, ashes, mountain-ashes, poplars, aspens, wild apples and pears, hawthorns, serv ice trees form the mixed forests which contain no trees with showy flowers, except wild fruit trees, have little underbrush and no climbing vines, except hop, clematis, and ivy. The autumn coloration is not remarkable. The beauty of the mountain forests lies in the mix ture of light deciduous and dark coniferous woods, interspersed here and there with mead ows or heath patches.