GENERAL INTRODUCTION 23 1 



sent to him by Thomas of Bex. But his attempt was 

 equally unfortunate. It remained for the immortal author 

 of the Tlora Orientalis to inaugurate in Switzerland the 

 artificial rockery and a rational system of cultivation. The 

 writer of these lines will never forget the impression 

 made upon his childish brain by the sight in about 1869- 

 70 of the famous gardens of VaJJeyres, though he was 

 not able to examine them in detail till long after. They 

 were a revelation to him. Some years before he had col- 

 lected in the Jura Saxifraga dizoon, Draba dizoides, etc., 

 and planted them in the wall of his father's garden ; at 

 Valleyres he saw the realisation of his own passionate 

 desires. Between i865 and 1870, Reuter, the Director of 

 the Botanical Garden at Geneva and fellow-worker with 

 Boissier, had rockeries constructed at the Bastions. The 

 battle was won ; and to-day any one who wishes may 

 have some bit of rock-work peopled with denizens of 

 cliff or mountain. 



But soon lovers of nature were alarmed to mark the 

 ravages committed by collectors in the neighbouring 

 hills; peasants of Savoy or Valais might be seen bringing 

 baskets full of uncommon species for sale in the Geneva 

 market, and it was only too certain that several classical 

 habitats of rarities were becoming exhausted. In i883 a 

 society for the preservation of alpines was formed among 

 members of the Genevese Section of the S. A. C., the 

 last ot whose annual reports has just appeared, the so- 

 ciety having amalgamated with the Ligue Suisse du Natur- 

 schutz. 



From the first this association of patriotic enthusiasts 

 set about the work of encouraging the cultivation of 

 alpines among professional gardeners, urging them to 

 raise these species from seed and to sell them at low 

 prices to amateurs. MM. Edmond Boissier, Alphonse 

 de Candolle, Eugene Rambert and Dr. Christ vigorously 



