RAMBLES WITH A TROWEL.' 



Ill 



the rest, their failure in it is adequately accounted for by the 

 mechanical properties to which I have already referred. Art can 

 otherwise supply the qualities of chalk for those plants which 

 like it ; but art can only, very partially at most, correct its 

 positive faults for those plants to whose habits or constitutions 

 it is inimical. Androsace carnea and glac talis, Eritrichium 

 namtm, Primula glutiuosa, and many other Primulas, with 

 Litliosjicrmum prostratitm, Azalea procumbens, and Ranunculus 

 glacialis, are among the plants — and there are many — which so 

 exact a non-calcareous soil as to refuse wholly to grow in a 

 calcareous one. 



The range of my plant-hunting Alpine expeditions has not 

 been a very wide one. I have made two excursions to the 

 " Dolomite " range in South Tyrol (Austria and Italy), a country 

 with a flora at once numerous, rich, and beautiful. Each of 

 these adjectives has a separate meaning, for a flora is often rich, 

 as well as beautiful, without being numerous. I mean the 

 number of distinct species may not be large. 



The Dolomites are almost equally w T ell reached through 

 Northern Italy by Milan, or via the Arlberg Railway from Zurich 

 by Innspriick, the Brenner, and Botzen. In the neighbourhood 

 of Botzen (the capital of South Tyrol) and just outside the 

 Dolomites proper, are several fine " botanical mountains," notably 

 the Schlern and the Mendl, with fair accommodation for tourists 

 on their top or sides. Those whose time is limited may be 

 content to go no further. 



The inn accommodation in the Dolomites is still reported to 

 be generally inferior, though in the way, probably, to rapid im- 

 provement. There are two marked exceptions (I mean to the 

 badness), viz. at Cortene, their chief town, and at San Martino 

 di Castrozza, where is a capital inn and a floral centre at once 

 rich and rare. It has been my chief centre of operations on my 

 two visits. The fact that it is on a fine military road, which 

 mounts to the summit of the Rolle Pass behind it (over 6,000 

 feet), remmds me to adventure a piece of general advice for the 

 benefit of any, if there are any here, who, so to speak, are like 

 myself, not " as young as they were." It is this. For your day's 

 work get as high as you can on wheels ; when wheels can go no 

 further, go as high as you can on horse or mule, and only begin 

 to use your Shanks's ponies, i.e. your own legs, when all other 



