HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



193 



A BOTANICAL EXCURSION IN SWITZERLAND. 



AVING read lately 

 in a back number 

 (July, 1S8S) of 

 your paper, an 

 article on a "Bo- 

 tanical Excursion 

 in Switzerland," 

 extending from Bex 

 to Martigny and up 

 the Rhone valley, 

 I thought it would 

 interest some of 

 your readers to 

 hear about the flora 

 in the Zermatt 

 valley, one of the 

 spur valleys of the 

 Rhone. In the 

 article referred to 

 above, the writer 

 says he " looked longingly up the valley leading 

 right and left to Zermatt and Saas," but was obliged 

 to retrace bis steps. 



Our botanical excursion was taken in August, and 

 the route selected from Thun was the one over the 

 Gemmi pass to Visp, then up the Zermatt valley to 

 a resting-place on the Riffel Alp. 



I think hardly any route in Switzerland better 

 illustrates the marvellous variety of the flora, as it 

 includes such great variations of altitude and tempera- 

 ture — the almost sub-tropical heat of the Rhone 

 valley contrasting with the cold of the Gemmi and 

 Riffel Alp, both 8000 feet high. Consequently we 

 had such a good opportunity of noticing the various 

 zones of vegetation. 



In ascending the Gemmi pass from Kandersteg these 

 are strikingly illustrated. All round the little hotel 

 at Kandersteg are rich meadows of luscious grass ; here 

 we found quantities of Chrysanthemum montanum, 

 many varieties of Campanula, Scabiosa, Clastria, and 

 the beautiful mauve Colchicum alpinum, besides a 

 specimen of Lilium marlagon. When a little way up 

 No. 333.— September 1892. 



the steep zigzag, among the pines, we came upon 

 Arnica montana, its brilliant yellow flowers contrast- 

 ing well with the blue of the Aconitum napellits, 

 Helianthemum, Dianthus sylvcstris. Then, after 

 toiling up a little higher, our old friends the Gentians 

 began to appear, along with the alpine Rhododen- 

 dron or Alpenrose, this latter looking a little bit 

 faded in the hot August sunshine. In this Gentian 

 zone the Violas also abounded, the delicate scented 

 yellow with the more showy-looking purple ; also 

 Cytisus alpinus. By this time we were getting 

 beyond the pine-trees, the air felt distinctly cooler 

 and more bracing, we were coming to the bare and 

 rocky part of the pass, and also to a complete change 

 in the character of the flora. We had lost the 

 luxuriant vegetation of the valley : there were abso- 

 lutely no trees, and we were beginning to fear our 

 walk would lack interest from a botanical point of 

 view, when, looking upon the masses of rock, we 

 found we had reached the region of the glacier 

 flowers, for in every crevice, growing with the 

 scantiest amount of earth, in among the rocks were 

 the tiny little flowers that constitute the chief charm 

 of Swiss botany. There were masses of the pink 

 Androsace and various sorts of Sedum. Here also we 

 gathered Dryas octopetala, Linaria alpina, Artemisia 

 glacialis, Erinits alpinus, and Aster alpinus. Besides 

 these, the lovely blue of the tiny star-gentian and the 

 pale blue of the myosotis gave a wealth of colouring 

 that needs to be seen in order to be understood. 



This last zone of flowers we found on the summit 

 of the Gemmi (Sooo) growing in more or less pro- 

 fusion, but we had to wait till we reached Zermatt 

 before we found the special flower of the mountaineer, 

 viz., the Edelweiss, or Gnaphalium leontopodium. 

 After crossing the Gemmi pass we hastened on to 

 Zermatt, determining to make that our headquarters, 

 having heard so much in praise of the botany there. 

 We stayed at the Riffel Alp hotel, on the Riffel, 

 at a height of nearly 8000 feet, commanding mag- 

 nificent views of the Matterhorn, Zermatt valley, and 

 Bernese Oberland. This makes a capital standing- 



