THE EDELWEISS 15 



THE EDELWEISS. 



The Edelweiss, Leontopodium alpinum, Cass. 1 

 (natural order Composite, the Daisy family), Plate I., 

 Fig. 1, about which so much romance has been woven, 

 and which is commonly believed to grow only in 

 situations almost unapproachable even to the most 

 hardy mountaineer, must be pronounced a complete 

 fraud in this respect. Scarcely a year passes but one 

 hears of some fatal accident as an unnecessary 

 corollary to the desire to gather this plant. Yet every 

 season huge masses of Edelweiss, which must 

 approach to tons in the aggregate, are gathered by 

 the Swiss peasants, or even grown in the lowlands 

 of northern Switzerland, for sale to the tourist. This 

 sale, I suspect, is a ready one, not so much because 

 of the interesting and unusual appearance of the 

 plant itself, as because of its reputed associations. 



Yet the Edelweiss is not a rare plant. It might 

 almost be called common. Those who have really 



1 Every plant has a Latin Christian name and Surname. The 

 Surname, or generic name, indicates the genus to which the plant belongs, 

 and the Christian name is the specific name, or name of the species. 

 The latter is regarded as an adjective, and is placed after the noun, the 

 generic name, the customary order in the Latin tongue. Thus JBellis 

 perervnis, the Common Daisy, is a member of the genus jBellis, and the 

 particular species, perennis. The name should always be written : Bellis 

 perennis, Linn. Linn, is a contraction for Linneeus, the name of the 

 botanist who founded the species, and who is called the " authority " 

 for the name. The necessity for quoting the authority arises from the 

 fact that in many cases the same plant has been described by two 

 botanists quite independently under different names, the oldest or first 

 description being regarded as alone valid. 



