1899] AN ALPINE PARADISE 347 



G figs.), gives us a glimpse of a wonderful field for research, within 

 three weeks' journey of England, and yet " practically less known to 

 naturalists than many parts of Central Africa." Speaking of the 

 marshy Alpine flower-gardens near his camp on the Darkoti or Tachety 

 river, 30 miles south-west of Kuch Agatch, at about 7000 feet, he 

 says, " I have never, either in the Alps of Europe, in the Sikkim 

 Himalaya, in Colorado, California, or anywhere else, seen such a perfect 

 natural garden of beautiful Alpine flowers as I saw here in the middle 

 of July. Among the most conspicuous were the lovely Primula 

 nivalis Pall., which strongly resembles P. parryi of Colorado ; Draco- 

 cepJialum grandifloruin, which grew in sheets of caerulean blue ; 

 Polemonium pulchellum ; Gentiana altaica ; Pcdieularis verticillata, P. 

 foliosa, P. comosa ; Allium sibiricum, or sencscens, the most ornamental 

 of its genus; Linum caeruleum; Iris tigridia Bunge ; Pyrethrum 

 pulchellum; a lovely blue Corydalis growing in wet places, which Mr. 

 Baker cannot name, and which may be new ; a beautiful Aquilegia, 

 named A. glandulosa at Kew, but much finer than that plant as we 

 know it in our gardens ; several pretty species of Astragalus, Lloydia 

 scrotina ; and many well-known Arctic and high Alpine plants, such 

 as Papaver alpinum, Draba ochroleuca, and Saxifraga oppositifolia, 

 which were found as high up as 8500 feet, where the flora and 

 scenery reminded one strongly of the high fjeld of Norway, and Drycts 

 octopetala, which covered the curious dry gravelly ridges on the hill- 

 sides in many places." Truly an Alpine paradise. 



Regeneration and Development. 



In connection with Professor Weismann's article on regeneration in the 

 last number of Natural Science, it is of interest to call attention to a 

 " Piectoratsrede " by Professor H. Strasser of Bern, entitled " regenera- 

 tion und Entwicklung " (Gustav Fischer, Jena, 1899, pp. 31, 1 

 mark). In this interesting address a comparison is made between the 

 phenomena of regeneration and those of ordinary ontogeny, and an 

 attempt is made to suggest a compromise between Weismann's position 

 and Hertwig's. It is interesting to see how Strasser's criticism that 

 Weismann attaches too little importance (" eine allzu untergeordnete 

 Bedeutung ") to the interactions of parts and the influence of external 

 conditions has been met in Weismann's recent article, as on p. 322 : 

 " I may, indeed, have laid too little emphasis on the role of the 

 liberating stimuli, and bestowed my attention too exclusively on the 

 ' Anlagen ' . . ." Or, again, " It will probably be necessary to make a 

 compromise between the theory of dispersal and that of liberation, 

 though it may not yet be possible even to sketch its outlines with 

 certainty." 



