220 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



year the list of deaths amongst the Alps includes 

 some fifteen or twenty folk who slip while gather- 

 ing edelweiss and other flowers. Abundant as it 

 would appear to be in many localities, the ne- 

 cessity of protecting this and other plants that 

 grow at moderate elevations from the attentions 

 of the ubiquitous and too enthusiastic tourists 

 has arisen, and an association for the protection 

 of Swiss plants has been set on foot. 1 Local 

 authorities, by direction of the central Govern- 

 ment, are taking steps to protect the flora from the 

 vandalism of the thoughtless tripper and the greed 

 of the professional flower-vendor, while the Diet of 

 the Tyrol imposes heavy fines on any one selling 



remember, from the village of San Bernadino, on that pass. 

 No doubt there was a precipice handy on one side for any 

 one who wished to commit suicide, but so there is on London 

 Bridge ; the edelweiss, however, was upon the other, a 

 rough, rather bare slope, where the grass grew in tussocks on 

 the stony ground. So far as my experience goes, that is its 

 favourite habitat, and I must have seen thousands of plants 

 and found it in almost every part of the Alps." BONNEY. 

 1 A botanical acquaintance of ours writes anent this : 

 " Coming down from the Faulhorn last month I passed a 

 young lady I am afraid she was English with a basket 

 and handkerchief crammed with flowers, among which I 

 could see gentians, forget-me-nots, androsaces, and a host 

 of other characteristic plants. Now, if one such visitor 

 ascended the Faulhorn every day during the season and 

 brought away a like quantity, the botany of that mountain, 

 varied and beautiful as it still is, would soon be despoiled 

 of its chief treasures." 



