298 AFFINITIES OF SWISS ALPINES 



Schroeter states that 275 Swiss Alpines occur in the 

 Pyrenees, 399 in the Austrian Alps, 231 in the 

 Carpathians, 129 in the Altai, and 72 in the Hima- 

 layas. We see, therefore, that many Alpines are 

 very widely distributed, though confined to Alpine 

 regions, and for the most part unknown in the plains 

 between the various links in the chain of mountains 

 in Southern Europe. We may picture these plants 

 as occupying islands surrounded on all sides by a sea 

 of Lowland vegetation. 



We now pass on to compare the Swiss Alpine 

 flora with those of the plains to the north and south 

 of the Alps. 



One of the most striking features of the vegetation 

 of Alpine Switzerland is its close affinity with that of 

 the Lowlands of temperate Western and Central 

 Europe, north of the Alps, especially with the floras 

 of Britain, France, and Germany. 



We have seen (p. 205) that many British plants 

 are abundant in the Swiss Alpine region. Further, 

 the great majority of the species which there occur, 

 and which are not found in the plains to the north 

 of the Alps, belong to genera or families highly 

 characteristic of the latter region. This affinity is, if 

 anything, somewhat closer than that of the floras of 

 the Pyrenees and Tyrol to the same Western 

 European flora. 



When, however, we compare the Swiss Alpine 

 flora with the subtropical Mediterranean flora to the 

 south of the Alps, the difference is exceedingly 



