VEGETATION AND ALTITUDE 7 



elevation, even if we restrict the High Alpine or so- 

 called Glacial plants to a separate category. Many of 

 the latter, as we shall see in a later chapter, exhibit 

 the same peculiarities, though in a more marked 

 degree. 



The gradual nature of the change in the vegetation 

 as we pass upwards from the Alpine to the High 

 Alpine region is usually better realised nowadays, 

 than the changes from the Lowland to the Subalpine 

 and the Subalpine to the Alpine zones. In these days 

 of mountain railways, when most travellers reach the 

 Alpine zone by train, the transitions between the 

 lower zones are apt to be overlooked. The slow 

 journey on foot, still happily necessary to reach the 

 High Alpine region, offers a far better chance of study 

 and reflection on this point. It is thus worth while 

 to those botanically inclined, for once at any rate, to 

 pass leisurely, on foot, from the lowlands to the Alpine 

 zone, as, for instance, along the Rhone valley and up 

 either the Zermatt or Saas Thai. In this way we 

 shall have an excellent opportunity of studying the 

 gradual nature of the change as we ascend. 



It may be here mentioned, perhaps, that care 

 should be taken in regard to altitude in selecting a 

 Swiss centre for botanical explorations. The great 

 majority of Swiss health resorts 1 do not lie within 

 the Alpine zone. Grindelwald, Caux, and Chamonix 

 (Savoy), for instance, are 1,500 feet too low. The 



1 A list of Swiss resorts, classified according to altitude, is given in 

 the introduction to Baedeker's Switzerland. 



