INTROD UCTION. 



tions that were not done by Mr. J. W.Whymper with his 

 ■ accustomed feeling. Four of the woodcuts, from ' Peaks, 

 Passes, and Glaciers,' have been kindly lent by Messrs. 

 Longmans. 



Botanical descriptions of the species are not given. The 

 book has no pretensions to Botany, using that term in its 

 strictest and narrowest sense ; if countless technical descrip- 

 tions and multitudes of plants in the dried mummy stage 

 could have shown people , in general the exquisite beauty 

 of alpine flowers, they would have been popular long ago ! 

 But it seems to me that a knowledge of the names applied 

 to plants and of dried specimens is no more equal to an 

 acquaintance with them in a living state than is a knowledge 

 of the grammatical elements of a language to the experience 

 of its spirit-stirring eloquence. Anything approaching bota- 

 nical description I have endeavoured to put in the simplest 

 language possible. The first necessity is to familiarise many 

 with the plants in all their living beauty. 



Whatever the merits of the book may seem to others, its 

 imperfections will appear far greater to myself than to any- 

 body else. But, to do the subject justice, one would require 

 to spend half a lifetime in alpine countries — on many little- 

 known parts of which bloom numbers of those diminutive 

 stars of earth as yet unknown to books, and, it may be, 

 in many cases, unseen by man— and to have the aid of most 

 faithful and loving artistic work, to show 'the beauty of the 

 plants both individually and as they are arranged by nature 

 in their own wild homes. As, however, this is but one small 

 and neglected division of a very extensive subject, witt all 

 the more important branches of which I hope to deal, these 

 and many other things are, and must long remain, impossible 

 to me. I have, however, inspected almost every good col- 



