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INTRODUCTION 



THE Flora, of the Alps is a subject of never-failing in- 

 terest even to the casual visitor to the " playground of 

 Europe." Probably nowhere on the face of the globe is 

 to be found, especially in the spring and early summer, 

 a greater wealth of brightly coloured flowers, often 

 growing in enormous masses, festooning the rocks, and 

 making of the alpine pastures a veritable floral carpet; 

 and the interest is greatly increased by the ease with 

 which many of them can be cultivated in our flower-beds 

 or on our rockeries. 



The scope of the present work does not fall in exactly 

 with that of any other in the English language. Its 

 object is to provide the tourist with a handbook by which 

 he can recognise the plants which are likely to attract his 

 attention in his Alpine wanderings. There are excellent 

 Floras of Switzerland, of which the best is Gremli's, 

 translated by Paitson (Nutt) ; but the area of that book 

 is strictly confined to the Republic of Switzerland. There 

 are also Alpine Floras the range of which extends to the 

 adjacent mountain regions, especially Tirol, such as Dalla- 

 Torre's "Tourist's Guide to the Flora of the Alps," trans- 

 lated and edited by the present writer (Sonnenschein) ; 

 but in this little book " alpine " plants only are enume- 

 rated; many lowland species which are altogether un- 



