SWISS NOTES 47 



The usual colour of this handsome weed is a rich purple, like that 

 of Orchis Morio, and the bracts and calyx are dark madder-red. 

 I never before saw so much of the unicolor (blue or mauve) 

 variety of Linaria alpina, and some of the flowers were pale 

 mauve, with white palate. They were especially fine on the 

 Geisspfad Pass near the Italian frontier, at 7500 ft. Late in 

 August, close to the top of the Eggishorn (9500 ft.), within a few 

 feet of the much frequented path, were many patches of snow- 

 white Androsace glacialis, with very few of the ordinary pale pink 

 blossoms ; the leaves of these little cushions were entirely 

 obliterated by the white flowers. 



In Langthal, Binn, was a good hybrid, Saxifraga cuneifolia X 

 stellaris, both parents being close at hand in a damp, shady spot. 

 A double Knautia sylvatica was not far off. On the moraine 

 of the Saleinaz Glacier, of the extraordinary vegetation of which 

 I have written an account for the Gardeners' Chronicle, were 

 quantities of Lister a ovata, one of which had a double flower on 

 one pedicel. On the same moraine, and also at Champex and 

 Eiederalp, were monstrous growths of Cerastium triviale with 

 green petals only. On the high ridge above Riederfurka, 

 separating the Great Aletsch Glacier from the Ehone Valley, at 

 about 7300 ft., are numerous pools of water, in several of which 

 are quantities of Sparganium minimum Fries, and Callitriche 

 vemalis var. minima (both kindly determined by Mons. G. 

 Beauverd). There was ice at least half an inch thick on these 

 pools one morning in the middle of August. 



Near the picturesque village of Ried, wheat, ash, and pear trees, 

 flourish at about 4000 ft. Geranium sanguineum and Melam- 

 pyrum arvense ascend to 4500 ft., the southern grass, Andropogon 

 Ischcemum to about 3500 ft., and Vinca minor reaches 3000 ft. I 

 also found the Andropogon nearly as high in walking up Val 

 d'llliez to Champery. Above Belalp and Riederfurka, Arenaria 

 rubra can be seen at 7500 ft. 



In descending the Eggishorn by the steep rocks direct to the 

 glacier, at above 7800 ft., I came upon beautiful patches of 

 Gentiana brachyphylla, a foot or more across, with a few mauve 

 blossoms among them. I had not previously observed this colour- 

 form ; but G. verna and especially G. nivalis are not infrequently 

 found with mauve flowers. The colony of G. bavarica, with 

 violet flowers, which I found in June, 1908, and which apparently 

 was the first record for such a colour-form, has extended its area 

 somewhat, and is now found about a mile off in the same part of 

 the Mont Blanc massif, at about 7000 ft. Some of the flowers 

 were a very intense violet, almost black; but I find there is a 

 tendency in drying to revert to the normal blue colour. 



Near the junction of the Ober Aletsch and the Gross Aletsch 

 Glaciers, at about 6000 ft., I came upon an extraordinary form of 

 Trifolium pratense, with heads more resembling those of T. mari- 

 timum, and with short pale pink corollas. Later, in Herb. Mus. 

 Paris, I saw a very similar plant from the Grenier collection, 

 collected by H. Loret at Gedre in the Pyrenees, in 1860. It was 



