104 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



present here feel inclined, and at liberty, to take tickets to the 

 Riviera for the Easter holidays, they may rest assured that they 

 will find there plenty of material for horticultural observation, 

 and many sights of beauty to gladden their eyes, besides the 

 bright sun and the dark blue sea. 



" RAMBLES WITH A TROWEL." 



By Mr. H. Selfe-Leonard, F.R.H.S. 



The Secretary asked me some time back to give you a short 

 paper on my plant-hunting rambles in the Dolomite Alps. I 

 complied with a light heart, and have ever since been wondering 

 at my temerity. 



For I have none of the imaginative power which can paint 

 the glories, floral or otherwise, of the Alps ; nor even that far 

 commoner gift of making many words about what can be said 

 in few. 



My first resource in my difficulty has been to enlarge the 

 scope of my paper to cover my general Alpine wanderings, 

 Dolomitic or otherwise, and my second to determine that, relying 

 on your good nature, and on the freemasonry of plant-lovers, I 

 might write, just as I would talk to you, for twenty minutes or 

 so, rough notes on Alpine plants and plant-hunting, and on how 

 I personally " do it " — on the high places, or some of them, which 

 I have visited, on some of the things which I have found there, 

 and on what I do with what I find. 



Enthusiast though I am in the culture at home of Alpine 

 plants, the desire to possess them in some quantity could never 

 by itself impel me, or anybody else, to be at the expense of time 

 and money incurred by seeking them in their habitats. And 

 this although, somewhat strangely, there is no professional 

 foreign collector known to me who does his work well enough 

 as regards lifting, packing, and transmission of the plants to l>e 

 an efficient substitute for collecting personally. 



