HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



169 



BOTANICAL NOTES FROM THE SWISS HIGHLANDS. 



OVER THE GEMMI TO ZERMATT. 



\Contimted from page 153.] 



HE Rhone valley has 

 rather a dreary look 

 about it, apart from 

 the mountainswhich 

 enclose it ; and the 

 towns, apart from 

 the grand hotels, 

 Sion excepted, have 

 a mediceval dilapi- 

 dated aspect which 

 do not improve it. 

 The river sides are 

 for some distance 

 overspread in places 

 with stony detritus 

 Ijrought down by 

 the many mountain 

 tributaries when 

 swollen ; in other 

 places, either a scrub 

 of willow and alder mingled with narrow-leaved epilo- 

 biiitn, sallow-thorn, and myricaria, or a marsh abound- 

 ing in sedge and Typha fniniiiia. There is but little 

 cultivation in the upper section of the valley, but 

 vines seem to grow well on the lower slopes of the 

 hills ; and, if there were but a little more summer 

 than what usually prevails, the wine produced would 

 be better than it is. 



The Vispthal or St. Nicholasthal, up which lies 

 the road — horse-path only in parts — to Zermatt, is 

 very narrow for the greater part of the distance, and 

 very hot ; the hill-sides clothed with scrub and 

 forest in some parts, bare and rocky in others. The 

 bush by the roadside was frequently barberry, 

 Lonicera xylostriim, Samhiais racemosiis, Fi'ttnus 

 Mahaleb, Juniperiis sabina ; trailing over these our 

 old friend Clematis vitalba, not unfrequently about 

 Stalden for instance, and the following were collected 

 en route : Asclepiasvincetoxicum, Astragalus ofwbtychis, 

 cicer and kontimis, Achillea iiobilis, Asperiigo pro- 

 cumbeiis. Allium sphcerocephahim, Areiiaria grandi- 

 No. 296. — August 1889. 



flora (rocky debris near Raudau village), Artemisia 

 absinthium and campestris (this not in flower), Bromus 

 sqiiarrosiis, Cyiiodon dactylon, Centaurea paiiiculata. 

 Campanula rhombaidalis, CJiondrilla juncea (not in 

 flower) ; a Cuscuta on Berberis, species not known ; 

 Colutea arborescevs, Carum canii, Crepis fcctida, 

 Echinops sphcerocephalus, Echinospermnm Lappula, 

 Erucastriim obtnsanguluin, Gypsophila saxifraga, 

 Hieracium amplexicaiile, a coarse kind of the genus, 

 with large leaves and viscid yellow pubescence, wet 

 rocks ; florentinum, slender and more attractive 

 ( —piloselloides of Villars), inflorescence in a many- 

 flowered corymb, with small capitula on divaricating 

 peduncles — some specimens, starved perhaps, had 

 remarkably small capitula, rocky debris by the 

 side of torrents ; — Lactuca scariola and perennis, 

 Lasiogrostis again, Leonurus cardiaca, Luzula nivea, 

 Linaria italica, Linicni tenuifoliuin, like angustifoliutn, 

 but of less straggling habit, petals lilac and more per- 

 sistent ; Lilium Martagon (meadows) ; Melica ciliata, 

 common ; Nasturtiicm pyrenaicum. Ononis colummv^ 

 and Natrix, much alike, and when not in fruit easily 

 passed over the one for the other (in the former 

 species the flowers are subsessile, and the calyx is of 

 a tawny hue below, its divisions shorter than in those 

 of Natrix ; the pubescence too is shorter and denser, 

 imparting a dull greyish look to the leaves) ; — Phleuiii 

 BoeJimcri, Podospermum laciniattim (var. /8), Phyteuma 

 /lemisp/uEricum, near Zermatt ; Rosa alpina tomentosa, 

 Rubus — f^j-///j- by the fruit, but a small flowered form; 

 Silcne otites, Sedum album, Selaginella helvetica^ 

 Sctntervivnm arachnoideum and montanum, Sapoii- 

 aria officinalis, Tetragonolobus siliquosus, Tolpis 

 staticifolia. Common roadside plants noticed were 

 Stachys recta and Potentilla argentea ; Sisymbrium 

 Sophia was frequent, but no note was taken of any 

 thistle but Defloratus and Personata. A Medicago 

 was gathered, possibly minima, being tomentose, and 

 in other respects like it, but of more rigid growth, 

 spines shorter and less curved. 



At Zermatt two excursions were made : one to the 



I 



