PREFACE 



IT is quite natural that most of the books on Alpine plants 

 have dealt chiefly with the higher zone of vegetation, and 

 that consequently the flowers of the sub-alpine woods and 

 meadows have been somewhat neglected. Therefore it is 

 believed there is room for a book descriptive of the plants of 

 the lower mountains. 



In the first chapter it is explained that owing to overlapping, 

 a large number of species characteristic of the sub-alpine 

 regions are also found in the higher pastures ; and that many 

 others, of which not a few are British plants, descend to the 

 plains. No book on the subject would be at all representative 

 if both series were not included. 



When not otherwise stated, every plant described is believed 

 to be perennial. In the case of a few species short cultural 

 notes are given ; while there is a general chapter on the culti- 

 vation of Alpine plants. 



The heights given in the text refer more especially to the 

 Swiss Alps, though sometimes I have given the approximate 

 altitudinal limits of certain species as observed by myself in 

 other mountain ranges. Naturally in Britain, Scandinavia, etc., 

 most of the Alpine plants common to those countries and 

 Switzerland flourish at much lower elevations. 



The terms " Eastern," " Central," and " Western " Alps need 

 some slight explanation. These divisions are roughly those 

 adopted both in the late John Ball's classic Alpine Guide, and 

 in Mr. Coolidge's The Alps in Nature and History (1908). 

 Those two authorities have defined the Western Alps as 

 extending from the Col de Tenda to the Simplon Pass in 

 southern Switzerland. The Col de Tenda separates the Mari- 

 time Alps from the Ligurian Mountains, and carries the high 

 road from Nice to Cuneo and Turin. Thus the Western Alps 



