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PREFACE. '':;;^*' 



•nplll'", following work has no higher aim than to assist lovers of flowers, 

 -■- who have but a slender acquaintance with systematic botany, in naming 

 correctly some of the plants they may find during a visit to the Engadinc, 

 and with this view more attention has been paid in the illustrations to the 

 general appearance and habit of growth of the various plants, than to the 

 details of their structure ; at the same time, though the drawings might 

 no doubt liavc been more elaborate, it is hoped they arc accurate as far 

 as they go. 



Man}' people while in the Engadine arc induced by the profusion and 

 beauty of the wild flowers around them, and by the ease with which even 

 the high growing alpine species are obtained, to begin for the first time a 

 collection of dried plants, uliich they naturalK- wish to name correctly, but 

 with only a small knowledge of botanical terms, they find the ordinary books 

 difficult to understand and wish for some assistance in the form of illustration. 

 Ten }-ears ago, when these drawings were made, Weber's prett)- little work 

 in four volumes, containing plates of 400 flowers, was in frequent use, anil 

 probably still is ; but some of his illustrations are misleading from being 

 reduced in size without a notice to that effect, some give a very inadequate 

 idea of the plant in question, while, as far as the Engadine is concerned, not 

 far short of half the number of plates represent flowers which have not been 

 found in that localit}- at all. The employment of the present volume outside 

 the boundary of the valley it is espcciall)- intcndetl to illustrate, would not 

 labour under the same disadvantage, or at least not to the same extent, for 

 there are very few plants growing in the Engadine which are not found in 

 some other part of Switzerland as well, and the only ones represented in 

 this book are, I believe. Primula glutinosa and Primula dinyana. I am aware 

 that Dr. Taylor, in his Flozoers : their origin, shapes, etc., says that " on the 

 Engadine, a high valley in the Canton des Orisons, there are found eight}- 

 species of flowering plants unknown to the rest of Switzerland, although they 

 are very common in the extreme north of 1-Lurope," and he kindl}' informs 

 me that the statement was made on the authority of a paper in the Revue 

 des Deux Moiides, in February, 1870, by Prof. C. Martin, but a reference to the 

 article itself will I think prove that this is a mistaken inference from the words 



