the flowers are pressed, or the plants are pulled up with more 

 or less of their roots to be planted in some garden at home, 

 or, as the author would suggest is by far the best method, 

 photographs of the plants are taken. May we here, first of 

 all, protest against the wholesale destruction of Alpine plants 

 that goes on every year by careless visitors. Where a few 

 flowers are required for study or to be preserved by press- 

 ing, they may, by all means, be picked. There seems no 

 reason also why a few of the more common or abundant 

 plants should not be dug up with their roots, carefully 

 packed, and taken home, although the Swiss authorities do 

 not permit even this, but it is disgraceful that large nosegays 

 of choice flowers should be gathered for the mere pleasure 

 of watching them wither in the hand, and then thrown away. 

 The Swiss natives, unhappily, set us a very bad example in 

 this respect; but it is fortunate that the Edelweiss and 

 Alpenrose are the only flowers that they at all extensively 

 attack. Many of the more frequented tourist routes have 

 become almost bare of any but the commonest flowers. One 

 has only to ascend to some peak or glacier by two paths, 

 one that is well-trodden, and a second but little used, to see 

 how complete this destruction of wild flowers has been. 



Excellent little presses for preserving plants and flowers 

 can be bought in Switzerland. They take up no more room 

 in one's bag than a Baedeker or Bradshaw's Guide, and do 

 the work much more efficiently. Their only disadvantage 

 is that they are generally too small to display any but the 



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