396 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



system, including five Primulas, five Campanulas, eleven Gentians, 

 twenty-one Saxifrages, one Dianthus, and nine Ranunculus. 



Joh. Rudolf Suter produced a i2mo. in two vols, in 1802, entitled 

 " Flora Helvetica, exhibens Plantas Helvetiae indigenas Hallerianas, 

 et omnes quae nuper detectae sunt, ordine Linnaeano." * A much 

 enlarged second edition appeared in 1822, edited by Joh. Heget- 

 schweiler, who added a lengthy preface in German, containing a 

 useful account of Swiss plants, both native and cultivated ; copious 

 lists of localities and the floras of the various Cantons ; a calendar 

 of times of flowering ; and a very good account of the writers, from 

 Gesner in 1555 to the date of writing, who have dealt with Swiss 

 plants, and descriptions of their books. 



The main body of the book is arranged on the Linnean system, and 

 its chief value lies in the number of localities given and the records of 

 varietal forms. Thus a white-flowered form of Solarium, Dulcamara 

 is recorded from Walkenried. 



Of course many figures and descriptions of Alpines are to be found 

 in the more general works of Gerard, Parkinson, Clusius, and Dodoens. 



Now we turn to books containing coloured figures of Alpines, and 

 first of all must look at Jacquin's " Flora austriaca,"* 1773-8, a grand 

 folio with hand-coloured copper-plates of great beauty, among which 

 are many of our greatest favourites of the Alpine plants. Those of 

 Primula longiflora, P. Auricula, P. glutinosa, and P. carniolica are very 

 good, and Saxifraga Aizoon, Cyclamen europaeum, Euphorbia Cyparissias, 

 Silene Pumilio, Potentilla nitida, and Dianthus sylvestris make especially 

 beautiful plates. 



Weber's " Alpenpflanzen Deutschlands und der Schweiz " marks the 

 year 1843 as the commencement of a new era in books on Alpine plants ■ 

 for, to quote from Dr. Kranz's preface to the third edition, "In the 

 years 1843-56 J. C. Weber gave to the public the fruits of his many 

 years' uninterrupted studies on the Alpine plants. The work no sooner 

 appeared than it created universal admiration : partly on account of 

 the matter being new and attractive — as up to that time a book 

 presenting to the eye, in a series of plates, the most beautifully formed 

 and exquisitely coloured flora belonging to the Alpine region had 

 been wanting — but more especially because each particular illustration 

 is as faithfully coloured as if Nature herself had given the hues." 



1st ed. 1843. 300 col. figs. 



2nd ed. 1867. Plates re-arranged after De Candolle's method. 



1868. Supplement of 100 plates of very rare plants. 



3rd ed. 1871. Supplementary plates incorporated. 



4th ed. 1878. French and English names added. 



My copy is the 4th edition. Nature certainly did not attend to its 

 colouring, or the Dentarias would not be sky-blue, but I believe the 

 first edition was very beautifully coloured. The purpose of such a 

 book is to enable those who visit the Alps to name the flowers they 



