22 
NATURE NOTES 
successful negotiations resulted in the acquisition of thirty-hve 
acres, and public attention was aroused to the fact that the 
most lovely portion of all, the remaining forty-five acres, was 
threatened with spoliation by the builders. As a result of an 
open-air meeting on the top of the Hurst on January 22, 1899, 
an influential Committee of seventy members was formed, to 
request that the whole eighty acres might be devoted to the 
use of the public for ever. This object has now been achieved, 
inasmuch as the Council has decided to offer the sum of 5,000 
for the remaining forty-five acres. In the course of the two 
years’ agitation many public meetings have been held, and the 
largest petition ever signed in Croydon was presented in favour 
of the purchase. 
The Whitgift Hospital, Croydon. — The Croydon Anti- 
quities Protection Committee have issued an appeal against the 
threatened destruction of this fine Elizabethan building, illus- 
trated by some excellent views of its various aspects. We hope 
that the Committee, of which Mr. Whitaker, F.R.S., is chair- 
man, and Dr. Hobson secretary and treasurer, may be as 
successful in their efforts as have those who have been urging 
the acquisition of Croham Hurst. Dr. Hobson is lecturing on 
the subject at the Thornton Heath Polytechnic on February 9. 
Wild Bird Protection in Norfolk. — We are glad to learn 
that the Norfolk County Council have extended the order pro- 
hibiting the taking or killing of wild birds on Sundays, and the 
taking or destroying of wild birds’ eggs, to those parts of the 
rivers Yare and Wensum that are within their jurisdiction. 
Protection of Alpine Plants in France. — The following 
excellent article appeared in The Standard of January 18 : — 
“ The French authorities have followed the example of the Swiss Government 
in seeking to protect the Alpine plants from the destructiveness of the tourist. 
The Prefect of the Isere has published a decree for bidding the uprooting or sale 
of a number of the more beautiful or interesting kinds. Great as is the Alpine 
chain, with upland valleys and peaks almost countless, yet no attractive plant, 
however abundant, can long survive the ravages of the tripper, and, wiiat is 
worse, of the vendors of flowers. Those of the lower slopes escape by being also 
common outside the chain, though even here the cyclamen is to be protected ; 
but at from three to four thousand feet a marked change sets in. The lowlanders 
gradually disappear, and the highlanders of the botanical kingdom take their 
place. F rom about five to seven thousand feet we are in the richest zone of the 
Alpine flora. The stony slopes are thickly covered with the dwarf rhododendrons, 
one of the plants mentioned in the Prefect’s decree. Of these there are two 
species, one much commoner than the other, but at a little distance barely to be 
distinguished. A rhododendron slope in full flower exceeds in beauty even one 
covered with British heath or ling. But, as most of our countrymen are com- 
pelled to take holiday in August, they know little of the rhododendrons or the 
other flowers of this zone. To see them we must visit it early in July, for they 
begin to wane before that month is ended. Flowers, indeed, there are at eight 
thousand feet, and still higher, which, of course, come into blossom at a later 
date, yet on these stony places they are never in such profusion. But an Alp in 
July is a sight worth a long journey. The short turf is, in places, as full of 
flowers as a garden bed. Alpine plants, as a rule, do not grow high, and their 
