400 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



bavarica and Anemone alpina. "My Hundred Swiss Flowers," by 

 Mary Pratten (1887), contains rather rough outline drawings, in some 

 of which the flowers look skimpy and sadly asymmetrical. It is issued 

 in two forms, one plain, the other coloured by hand, but not greatly 

 improved thereby. And lastly, " Flowers from the Upper Alps, 

 with Glimpses of their Homes,"* by Elijah Walton (1869) : twelve 

 very beautifully reproduced chromolithographs of Walton's drawings. 

 Their chief charm lies in the beautiful backgrounds of mountain and 

 cloud, which were the artist's forte. The flowers look too much as 

 though they were drawn from a gathered specimen propped up in a 

 glass, especially so in the case of Sempervivum arachnoideum, of 

 which two flowering stems unite at the base and spring direct from 

 the rock without any accompanying barren rosettes. To each plate 

 there is a page of text by T. G. Bonney. 



Photography has made it possible to depict not only the whole 

 colouring of a plant, but also its natural surroundings, and many 

 books now show us Alpine plants at home. 



" Alpine Flowers and Rock-Gardens, " * by Walter P. Wright (1910, 

 12s. 6d.), is one of these, and is illustrated by many of the beautiful 

 coloured postcards published by Nenke and Ostermaier, of Dresden. 

 They look very well mounted on brown paper of two shades. Some 

 of them are rather over-coloured, especially those representing pink 

 and red flowers, and some savour of a little faking in the way of a few 

 additional roots having been transplanted to enrich the group, but on 

 the whole they are very beautiful and instructive, and the vivid blue 

 of Gentians is most faithfully reproduced. 



The text is pleasantly and popularly written, and many of the 

 chapters are devoted to cultural points and the construction of rock- 

 gardens. Mr. Graveson contributes a charming account of Alpines 

 in their homes, both in the Alps and in Britain. The latter part of the 

 book gives lists of plants suitable for rock-gardens, and as Narcissi 

 and Irises are included the choice is a wide one. 



In " Summer Flowers of the High Alps/'* by Somerville Hastings 

 (1910, ys. 6d.), a short introduction goes over much of the ground 

 covered by other books I have mentioned, but the main portion of 

 the book has a new feature best explained by a quotation from the 

 preface : — 



" The coloured plates of Alpine plants, which are the special 

 feature of this book, are all reproduced from colour photographs taken 

 directly from Nature. The plants were all photographed exactly as 

 they were found, with two exceptions, in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Rosenlaui, in the Bernese Oberland, during the month of 

 July 1909 ; so that the pictures are true portraits of the flowers 

 'at home.' " 



They were taken by the Lumiere process and then reproduced by 

 the three-colour process. 



The colouring is a trifle soft and dreamy when the green shades 

 are not preponderant and virulent, but all the same the 39 plates 



