INTRODUCTION. xli 



condition as at the loftiest summit ; yet alpine plants 

 do not occupy it at other than the highest and most 

 northern limits of vegetable life. We have all these, 

 however, in very fair perfection on our own mountains, 

 and a little elevation added to the highest of them would 

 give us an alpine or arctic climate to boot. But with all 

 this, extremely few of the types of alpine plants that are 

 peculiar to the highest positions on the Alps occur in 

 the flora of Britain ; and it is remarkable of these few 

 species that, while they are solitary or exceptional in 

 their occurrence in Britain, they enjoy a wide and liberal 

 distribution in the higher alpine and arctic regions. It 

 does not appear, therefore, that the circumstances of 

 congenial soil and elevation are all that these plants 

 require in our climate. Perhaps the long winter's rest 

 under their snowy covering, extending to from six to 

 nine months — and sometimes, by reason of a low sum- 

 mer temperature succeeding an unusually severe winter, 

 they are even locked up from the light for two years on 

 end — is what they miss most in our climate. They are 

 called on to endure in one year, in the climate of Britain, 

 an amount of excitement that would be spread over 

 several years of their existence in their native habitats ; 

 and this, sustained year after year, cannot but end in 

 debility and utter exhaustion sooner or later. Good 

 culture and careful management will do much to obviate 

 and ward off the fatal end for a time ; but the often-re- 

 peated failures in the past, with many of the more deli- 

 cate and rare of these gems of the high Alps, will not 

 be exceptional, it is to be feared, in the experience of all 

 who attempt their culture in Britain in the future. But 

 this consideration should not deter any who have the 



