288 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



within an hour's walk of the Hospice, and gather armfuls of 

 gay flowers worthy of any garden in the land; while up the 

 liigher slopes, among the stones and loose rocks, rare and 

 interesting creeping alpines abound. In the ascent of the 

 streams from the valleys to the highest ridges may be found 

 an unlimited wealth of comparatively rare species. 



By the side of the Hospice a very well-kept Rock and Alpine 

 Garden has been made. It was first begun about the year 

 1898, by the University of Grenoble, and has been kept up 

 by jardinier botanists from the Botanic Gardens of Lyons. 

 Here one may see growing, and carefully named, many of the 

 rare and ornamental native plants, as well as many brought 

 from other districts of France. The garden is an endless 

 source of interest to the travellers who stay in passing for a 

 break in their journey. In connection with this garden, a 

 room is set apart in one of the annexes for a botanical 

 laboratory, where work goes on all the season, and botanists 

 who may visit the district are courteously invited to use the 

 room, with its materials. Many noted botanists visit Le 

 Lautaret, and a book is kept with their autographs and 

 written testimonies to the interesting nature of the district 

 as a field for botanical work. 



A very striking feature of the flora of the prairie or 

 undulating meadow-land in Lautaret is the vigorous growth of 

 the vegetation. Although at a minimum altitude of 7,000 

 feet, the great mass of the plants are tall and strong, many 

 from two to three feet in height — an exceptional condition in so 

 lofty a situation. With this, however, there is an equally 

 extraordinary growth of root. Even with the lower-growing 

 alpines, roots are found measuring two and three feet in 

 length, these long root-fibres straggling among and under the 

 looser rough surface and stony ground. Another feature of 

 the strong development in plant life is the tendency to the 

 formation of woody stems, especially near the roots. Many of 

 the mountain plants in Lautaret are strikingly marked by 

 the hard, almost stony condition of their stems, elsewhere soft 

 and easily crushed. Another peculiarity in the plant life of 

 this district is the presence in the open prairie of species 

 generally found in woods or gorges. 



