112 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



means of locomotion fail you. At a pinch, I have not refused 

 the aid of the patient ass, and I should think twice ere I refused 

 a sedan chair were it offered me. I have a dark suspicion that 

 I may he oftener laughed at than I wot ; but " let those laugh 

 who win," and I can aver that my day's enjoyment and plant- 

 winnings in the heights are, ordinarily, in direct proportion to 

 the care with which I have husbanded my strength for those 

 long hours of excited scramble, and, better still, of delightful 

 "potter" among the stones, which succeed arrival upon the 

 hunting-ground. 



For the same reason, start early, that you may be in the cool 

 heights ere the sun is hot. So much for my Dolomite ex- 

 cursions. 



Scarcely second to it for interest, and for wealth of plants, 

 we must place the Engadine. It is a fit " pendant," so to 

 speak, of the Dolomites, for the latter are generally calcareous, 

 while the Engadine is almost wholly granitic, and the flora varies 

 accordingly. The comparison between the two floras is 

 interesting and instructive. Take, for instance, the different 

 Alpine Primulas found in each district. To the best of my 

 recollection, only two species of Primula did I find common 

 to both localities, viz. farinosa and longiflora. For the rest 

 the Engadine is rich in Primula viscosa, intcgrifolia, graveolens, 

 and a host of their beautiful hybrids ; but there is not found in 

 it either of the following, which in the Dolomites (not probably 

 100 miles off) are plentiful : Primula minima, Balbisi, Flocr- 

 keana, ghitinosa, and their many hybrids. 



Famous plant habitats in the Engadine are the Bernina 

 Pass and the range generally, and particularly the famous 

 Heuthal (the Val de Fain as it is also known) included in that 

 range. The Fex Thai and Bever Thai, which radiate (in 

 another direction) out of the Engadine Valley, are nearly as 

 famous botanical resorts. But it is quite likely that many 

 adjoining and less frequented valleys are as rich or more so. 



The Engadine, as most of you know, is the strangely large 

 ;ind high-placed valley of the Upper Inn, in the extreme east of 

 Switzerland. Pontresina still remains, perhaps, the best head- 

 quarters their for the plant-hunter and botanist, if he can tolerate 

 the transformation from the once simplicity and picturesqueness 

 of the village as it lately was to the town almost as it now is. 



