viii PREFACE 



watched the natural sequence of events. The 

 tourist, arriving among the High Alps perhaps for 

 the first time, is at once struck by the extreme beauty 

 and richness of the flora. I have noticed that, in 

 nine cases out of ten, he will devote more attention to 

 the Alpine flowers than he is at all likely to bestow on 

 our British wild plants. He is anxious, and rightly 

 so, to ascertain the name of this or that plant, which 

 he may happen to have come across, usually quite unex- 

 pectedly, in his wanderings and excursions. Yet, to 

 determine the genus and species is often an extremely 

 difficult task for the layman, and in certain cases 

 even for a trained botanist. If, rather by good luck 

 than otherwise, perhaps by resort to a book contain- 

 ing crudely coloured illustrations of some of the 

 commoner Swiss plants, the name of a flower is 

 obtained, as a rule all further interest in the plant 

 ceases. It is either thrown away or perhaps 

 "pressed," and, as often as not, forgotten. 



Yet, to the trained botanist, the name of a plant 

 is frequently the least interesting matter in connection 

 with it. He too, like the layman, may have to take 

 some pains to find out the genus and species, but, 

 once these have been ascertained, a whole host of 

 fascinating, even absorbing, interests may be pre- 

 sented by almost any Alpine plant. Originally a 

 knowledge of each of these was won from the 

 domain of ignorance by the researches of some 

 botanical student of Alpine vegetation. The results 

 of his scientific explorations are buried in a host of 



