INTRODUCTION 



The Flora of the Alps is a subject of never-failing in- 

 terest even to the casual visitor to the " playground of 

 Europe." Probably nowhere on the face of the globe is 

 to be found, especially in the spring and early summer, 

 a greater wealth of brightly coloured flowers, often 

 growing in enormous masses, festooning the rocks, and 

 making of the alpine pastures a veritable floral carpet; 

 and the interest is greatly increased by the ease with 

 which many of them can be cultivated in our flower-beds 

 or on our rockeries. 



The scope of the present work does not fall in exactly 



j^with that of any other in the English language. Its 

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 object is to provide the tourist with a handbook by which 



^ he can recognise the plants which are likely to attract his 

 attention in his Alpine wanderings. There are excellent 

 ;^ Floras of Switzerland, of which the best is Gremli's, 

 ^ translated by Paitson (Nutt) ; but the area of that book 

 N is strictly confined to the Republic of Switzerland. There 

 f, are also Alpine Floras the range of which extends to the 

 •^^ adjacent mountain regions, especially Tirol, such as Dalla- 

 •* Torre's ''Tourist's Guide to the Flora of the Alps," trans- 

 ' lated and edited by the present writer (Sonnenschein); 

 but in this little book "alpine" plants only are enume- 

 rated ; many lowland species which are altogether un- 



