506 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONUN INSTITUTION, 1931 



Perhaps also, especially during the first weeks of spring, one may- 

 be lucky enough to come in the higher hills upon a field whose center 

 is occupied by a melting snowbank or ice layer, a hundred or more 

 feet across, whose periphery is aglow with flourishing groups of 

 soldanella, oxlip, silver thistle, hepatica, crocuses, blue snow gentians, 

 primroses (among them Primula auricula) , the Mediterranean heath 

 {EHca camea), butterwort {Pinguicula alpina), spring columbine, 

 violets, for-get-me-not {Myosotis alpestris), buttercups {Ranunculus 

 glacialis), and other early flowers, mixed with still earlier grasses 

 and small shrubs. The present writer has on several occasions 

 picked bunches of many-colored flowers on the margins of a neve 

 whose ice-cold water warmed in the sun became a fit stimulant and 

 food solvent for the surrounding vegetation. 



In the protected Alpine woods a somewhat different flower exhibit 

 is held. Here, for example, most of the Swiss orchids are found, 

 more than 20 species in the Forest Cantons, a remarkable showing 

 when contrasted with the few species found in the whole of North 

 America. Then again, harebells, wood geranium, rockrose {Eelian- 

 themum vulgare), St. Johnswort {Hypericum maeulatum)^ cinque- 

 foils {Potenfilla aurea and P. argentea)^ Prenanthes purpurea^ chick- 

 weed {Gerastium arvense), willow-herb {Epilohrium angustifo- 

 lium), Moehringia muscosa, Digitalis amhigua, valerian {Valeriana 

 tryptens)^ adenostyles alpina, several mints (among them Mentha 

 sylvestris) ^ Turkscap lily {Liliu/?n martagon) , broom {Genista tinc- 

 tona), rockcress {Arahis alpina), clematis, honeysuckle, chicory, 

 woodbine, cowslips, and many other shade and water loving j^lants 

 flourish along the banks of the mountain rills, together with a multi- 

 tude of lovely ferns, mosses, and rock plants. 



Speaking of the last named, the geologic formations of the Swiss 

 mountains, especially the glacial and other sedimentary rocks, form 

 admirable backgrounds for rock gardens, and here rather than in 

 artificial creations, however extensive and well kept, are to be found 

 the most wonderful of these peculiarly attractive examples of flori- 

 culture. Scattered over and almost covering some of the " pudding- 

 stone " areas (glacial moraines) of the Forest Cantons may be seen 

 many a flourishing wild " garden " that puts to shame both in variety 

 and quantity of bloom the vaunted and carefully cultivated imita- 

 tions to be found in our botanical parks. 



From the foregoing will be readily imagined the difficulty at- 

 tendant upon an attempt to describe in anything like detail the 

 hundreds of wild species that flourish in the meadows, pastures, 

 forests, valleys, and rugged mountains of the cantons bordering on 

 the Lake of Lucerne. Even when one confines oneself, as in this 

 short paper, to the indigenous flowers of the two cantons, Schwyz 



