xiv FOREWORDS TO NEW EDITION 



happy. Therefore in a dry district we should lean 

 more to the southern plants, such as Rock Roses, and 

 in heavy soils, which we cannot easily alter, take 

 up easily-grown plants, like the Candytufts, Rockfoils, 

 Stonecrops, and Houseleeks. 



CONDITIONS ON THE ALPS. 



If the conditions of plant life in our islands are so 

 varied, how of those of the Alps ? In no part of the 

 earth are they so wondrously varied, severe, and 

 even terrible. Valleys that would tempt young 

 goddesses to gather flowers, and valleys flanked with 

 cliffs fit to guard the River of Death : beautiful 

 forest shade for woodland flowers, and vast prairies 

 without a tree, yet paved with Gentians ; sunburnt 

 slopes and chilly gorges ; mountain copses with 

 shade and shelter for the taller plants, and uplands 

 with large areas of plants withered up, owing to 

 the snow lying more than a year. Plants rooted deep 

 in prime river-carried soil, and others living and thriving 

 in little depressions in the earthless rock. Lakes and 

 pools at every elevation, torrents, streams splashing 

 from snowy peaks ; pools, bogs, and spring-fed rills 

 at every altitude; long melting snow-fields, giving 

 the plants imprisoned below them their freedom at 

 different times, and so leading to a succession of 

 alpine flower life. 



Most noticeable of all, for us, however, is the 

 great winter rest under the snow which keeps the 

 plants asleep. The absence of snow in our country 



