398 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



plant which is reported by competent authorities as growing wild in 

 Switzerland is at least named and a short description given of all 

 except the commonest English plants. These descriptions are certainly 

 very short, but the main character alone is given and the plants are 

 grouped by common characters, so that the book is a useful guide to 

 ordinary tourists and gardeners. 



Thus on p. 24 we find: " Alyssum L. — Stem leafy ; leaves entire ; 

 flowers small, white or yellow ; sepals equal or bifid ; filaments 

 toothed or winged ; seed-vessel cylindrical, few-seeded. 



" A. alpestre L., with small pale yellow petals, scarcely longer 

 than the sepals, and woody stem ; Nicolaithal, Pyrenees, Dauphiny, 

 rare. A. Wnlfenianum Bernh., with golden-yellow flowers and sharp 

 teeth on the filaments ; Switzerland, Tirol, Styria, Carinthia, rare. 

 A. Rochelii Andrz., with golden-yellow flowers and blunt filament- 

 teeth ; Carinthia, Pyrenees. A. montanum L., a shrubby plant with 

 larger yellow flowers ; and A. Perusianum Gay, A. spinosum L., and 

 A. pyrenaicum L., with white flowers, the last two spiny; Pyre- 

 nees. A. calycinum L., flowers yellow, is a weed in cultivated land. 

 A. incanum L., flowers white, plant grey with stellate hairs; road- 

 sides, southern Switzerland, rare." 



A cheap handbook popular with tourists is Schroter's coloured 

 " Vade-mecum to the Alpine Flora," * a flat, easily carried book, in 

 French, English, and German, with badly drawn and garish illustrations, 

 showing six to ten different plants on a page. The seventh edition 

 appeared in 1900. 



Somewhat like it, but with much better illustrations, is Penzig's 

 "Flora delle Alpi " (Milan, 1902), in Italian (lire 7.25). The 

 plates are by Hermann Friese, and are also used in Hoffmann's "Alpine 

 Flora for Tourists,"* of which there is an English translation by Mrs. 

 A. Gepp. (1903, 7s. 6d.) 



There is a very useful series of pocket Floras published by Paul 

 Klincksieck (Librairie des Sciences Naturelles, 3 Rue Corneille, Paris, 

 6 fr. 50 each). The first of these was H. Correvon's "Flore coloriee 

 de poche a l'usage des Touristes dans les Montagnes de la Suisse, de la 

 Savoie, du Dauphine, des Pyrenees, &c.," with 144 coloured plates. 

 These are rather weak and washy in colour, but sufficiently well 

 drawn to serve for the identification of the plants. Three later volumes 

 by Ch. Flahault appeared as Series I., II., and III. of "Nouvelle 

 Flore de poche des Alpes et des Pyrenees "* in 1906, 1908, and 1912. 

 In these the plates are better coloured, and there are many useful 

 outline drawings in the text, borrowed from Coste's " Flore de la 

 France." I have found these books very useful and highly recom- 

 mend them. 



A still more pocketable volume is " The Tourist's Guide to the 

 Flora of the Alps," by Prof. Dalla Torre, translated by Alfred Bennett, 

 1886, which is very reliable and useful considering its size, but contain- 

 ing no illustrations, so we will pass on to Correvon's "Flore Alpine,"* 

 the French and first edition of which appeared in 1908, and an English 



