BRITISH ALPINES 69 



from the men who had subdued the rest of the king- 

 dom, so in the plant world they acted as a barrier 

 against the invaders from the south. Time has been 

 all against them, and the advance of civilisation, bring- 

 ing with it increased cultivation, has increased their 

 foes. 



It is, alas, as a dwindling race that our British 

 Alpines must be regarded. This is the greater reason 

 for them to be accorded protection. The botanist, 

 wishing to make his herbarium complete, naturally 

 desires to obtain a specimen of the rarest of them ; 

 and there is the commercial collector who would 

 sacrifice the oldest of the race of British plants in the 

 pursuit of gain. The latter should be warned off by 

 all local authorities ; to the former an appeal should 

 be made to kave the root in all cases, and to spare the 

 flowers as much as possible. Surely in an herbarium 

 it is better to see a specimen of a rare Saxifrage or 

 Gentian that has been obtained where it is plentiful 

 abroad, rather than a native specimen taken at the 

 risk of the extermination of the plant in its British 

 home. Let the collector reflect in time, and remember- 

 ing the following lines of Hugh McMillan, in that 

 delightful book of botanical rambles — " Holidays in 

 Highlands" — spare these rare treasures of our moun- 

 tains. 



" How suggestive of marvellous reflection is the 

 thought that these flowers, so fragile that the least 

 rude breath of wind might break them, and so delicate 

 that they fade with the first scorching heat of August, 

 have existed in their lonely and isolated stations in the 



