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PROTECTION OF ALPINE PLANTS. 
Every one interested in alpine plants will 
be glad to hear that a society for their protec- 
tion has been formed at Geneva. Before this 
time, attempts have been made by the govern- 
ments of several Swiss cantons to protect 
plants, especially the edelweiss ; which, how- 
ever, is not a rare plant, and needs protection 
less than a host of its scarcer neighbors. 
Spain and Italy have already taken steps to- 
ward protecting their alpine floras; and the 
latter country hopes to obtain an edict from 
the government, which shall authorize the col- 
lection of rare plants, only by persons supplied 
with cards of permission. 
The new society was founded in January, 
1883, under the title ‘ L’association pour la 
protection des plantes.’ Its formation at 
Geneva is particularly fitting; for, besides 
possessing the typical alpine flora, this place 
is the northern, and also the southern, limit 
of many plants. Being the great business and 
social centre, it is frequented by venders of 
the plants; so that any action there would 
strike at the principal source of drain: and, 
from its associations as the home of past and 
present eminent botanists, it is very suitable. 
_ The aim of the society will be to check the 
wholesale collection of plants (and it is thought 
that the best means to accomplish this is to 
call the attention of the public to the injury 
done by the collection of plants with roots) ; to 
develop a taste for the cultivation of alpines ; 
and to induce gardeners to raise them, and sell 
them at a moderate price. These plans, espe- 
cially the propagation in sale-gardens, have 
been approved by the Swiss and various other 
alpine clubs. 
their collection. 
The custom of selling plants in the markets 
has not long been in vogue, yet long enough 
to show, that, unless effectually checked, the 
most injurious results will follow. It causes 
righteous indignation to all lovers of alpine 
plants to see the wholesale way in which, twice 
a week, the peasants (mostly the women) bring 
into Geneva and other markets these beautiful 
gems of the mountains, each in its season, — 
the rare rather than the commoner ones, as they 
naturally command a higher price. In fact, as 
has been said, one can make a botanical excur- 
sion without going out of the city. The flow- 
ers not sold soon fade and droop in the hot 
BG) lal Be ui ut alll 
SCIENCE. 
Among the advocates of the 
plan of propagation is Alphonse de Candolle, 
who thinks that the action of the police and. 
legal interference would merely raise the price, 
of plants, and thus increase the incentive for. 
[Vou. III, No. 71. 
sun, and are thrown aside as worthless ; rarely 
do purchasers keep them longer than while 
they are in bloom: and thus are thousands of 
plants, roots and all, destroyed. 
In the second bulletin of the society, a 
botanist writes that the societies for exchange 
of botanical specimens also offer much danger 
to rare species. ‘The members, he says, are 
mostly amateurs, and obtain for their her- 
bariums foreign plants by giving specimens of 
the rare plants of their own country ; and this, 
in time, absorbs an immense quantity of speci- 
mens. He himself once communicated with 
one of these societies in order to obtain some 
rare plants. In return, an exorbitant list of 
the scarcest kinds was demanded, the quantity 
being frequently expressed as ‘ un char plein,’ 
‘le plus possible,’ etc. Besides these sources 
of drain, collectors from horticultural houses 
in England and Germany carry away great 
numbers of plants ; professors and their pupils 
freely help themselves to rare species ; ‘ botan- 
ical guides’ aid in the devastation by directing 
collectors to rich localities ; and vast quantities 
are collected for pharmaceutical purposes, or 
are sold as botanical albums or as herbariums. 
Many localities, formerly rich in specimens, 
are now nearly or quite stripped of them; and 
it is time that these plants, perhaps the most 
universally attractive and admired in the world, 
should be protected from the disastrous war 
annually made upon them. 
The society has attempted to check this 
abuse by spreading a knowledge of the danger 
by means of correspondence and publications. 
It has been suggested to post placards in Swiss 
hotels, requesting visitors not to collect roots, 
and informing them where they can purchase 
the same plants cultivated, in much better con- 
dition for transportation and future cultivation. 
A most important result of the work of the 
society is, that a horticultural company has 
been formed for the cultivation and sale of 
such alpine plants as may be induced to grow 
in the valleys. Mr. Correvin, formerly direc- 
tor of the botanic garden of Geneva, and at 
present secretary of the Society for protection 
of plants, has been made superintendent of 
the establishment. It will raise plants from 
seed principally ; and they can be purchased 
in pots, ready for transportation. There is 
no cause to fear for the success of the enter- 
prise if the financial part proves prosperous, as 
the most attractive species of alpine Primulas, 
Campanulas, Dianthuses, gentians, edelweiss, 
orchids, etc., have been successfully grown 
in Switzerland, in England, and some of them 
even in this country. 
