the snowline, which may be taken as somewhere between 

 8000 and 9000 feet. Some of the most charming and 

 brightly coloured of Alpine plants like Eritrichium nanum 

 and the Cushion pinks (Plate 9) are to be found just below 

 the snowline. Even above this level flowering plants may 

 be met with, for even at the highest altitudes bare rock is to 

 be found from which the snow has been blown by the 

 wind or melted by the sun, or where the slope is too great 

 for more than a very thin covering to remain lodged. The 

 Glacier Crowfoot (Ranunculus glacialis), a pink-flowered 

 buttercup, has for example been found within a short 

 distance of the summit of the Finsteraarhorn, the highest 

 peak in the Bernese Oberland. 



Just over two thousand different species of flowering 

 plants are to be found in Switzerland, and a little over half 

 of these are exclusively Alpine. In contrasting the flowers 

 of the Alps with those of our own country, it may be first 

 of all well to consider what we have that Switzerland has 

 not. Of course our seashore plants will be mainly absent, 

 but strange to say a few species of Thrift are here and 

 there found, and the yellow Horned Sea-poppy (Glaudum 

 luteum) even grows in the neighbourhood of Lake Neuchatel. 

 We are so used to the bluebells of our woods, the purple 

 heather of our heaths, and the yellow gorse of our commons, 

 that we hardly realise how glorious they are. In Switzerland 

 the gorse is very rare, the bluebells are not found at all, 

 and the bell-heathers are absent though the ling is found 



xiii 



