198 pkesident's adleess. 



Switzerland, like other lands, has been largely intersected by- 

 railways, and one of the best known of those lines is that which 

 carries the traveller, eager for the sunny skies of Italy, from 

 Geneva along the shores of beautiful Lake Leman to the foot of 

 the Simplon Pass. Before that line was constructed there was a 

 flora quite peculiar to the Ehone Valley between Sion and the 

 Lake. I believe that I am perfectly correct in saying that no- 

 .where else in Switzerland were some of the plants to be found. 

 But of late years those plants, or some of them, have become not 

 uncommon in districts far removed from their original habitat. 

 How has this been effected ? Have the seeds availed themselves, 

 like man, of the mighty steam horse to emigrate to other, and 

 possibly more congenial, lands ? How else can the formation of 

 the road have brought about this result ? That the seeds have 

 been conveyed by human hands is altogether out of the question. 

 If the railroad has been the means of widening the area of the 

 growth of these particular plants, may not the older and slower 

 ways of locomotion have been used to the same purpose ? 

 ■ That certain plants do follow man's footsteps admits of no 

 doubt. Thus the Indians of I^orth America call the common 

 Plantaiu'the "White man's foot," because it invariably follows 

 the footsteps of Europeans. This is familiar to many from the 

 way in which Longfellow speaks of it in the Song of Hiawatha — 



" Where'er they tread, beneath them 

 Springs a flower unknown among us, 

 Springs the white man's foot in blossom." 



Again, the K'ew Zealander calls the Chickweed "The mark of 

 the pale face ;" and the Yellow Sorrel' of the Cape is known in 

 Malta as "The Englishman's plant." And yet, I suppose, no 

 one can entertain the idea for one moment that these plants have 

 been purposely introduced by man into these lands. IS'o loving 

 attachment, as in the case of the Scotchman to the Thistle, exists 

 in any mind, so far as I am aware, to any of them. Indeed, as 

 a most thoughtful and eloquent writer well puts it,* "It is a 

 law of Nature that plants should be diffused as widely as possible 



* Hugh Macmillan. 



