LES PLANTES DES ALPES. 
13 
The time occupied from the appearance of the antheridia 
and archegonia to the ripening of the spores varies from 
about two months to ten or twelve in different species. When 
the spores are ripe they have to be discharged from the 
capsule. This is mostly effected by the capsule bending 
downwards. Sometimes the stalk bends, sometimes the 
capsule itself becomes arched. But where the capsule 
remains erect a jerk 'is produced either by the elasticity of 
the peristome or by a sudden twist of the stalk, and the 
spores are so small and light that a very slight jerk throws 
them out as a fine floating dust. Then they find tlieir way 
to the moist earth, and give rise to a new protonema. 
Some mosses—two at least of our common species—have 
another method of asexual propagation, by the production of 
gemmae, which are not single cells like spores, but clusters 
of cells produced on special stalks, and which also give rise 
to a protonema. 
In this short sketch I have omitted many exceptions and 
specialities of aberrant genera, my object being merely to 
give a general outline of the subject by way of introduction 
to the examination of the living specimens. 
LES PLANTES DES ALPES* 
The name of M. Correvon is already familiar to readers of the 
“Gardeners’ Chronicle” as the writer of some useful notes on the 
cultivation of alpine plants, founded on an experience gained whilst 
curator of the Botanic Gardens at Geneva. He has now given us, in 
French, a small book on the same subject, containing some 260 pages 
of post 8vo., printed in large clear type. 
The Jardin d’Acclimatation of Geneva was instituted last year, and 
seems likely to play an important part in the distribution of alpine 
plants. M. Correvon tells us that a few lovers of flowers, amongst 
whom he seems to have been the leading spirit, being horrified at the 
enormous number of alpine plants which are every year dug up in the 
Alps by tourists of all nations, and taken home when in full flower 
only to die, thought this the best remedy. “ This new horticultural 
establishment,” he says, “has for its object the raising of large 
quantities of the choicest alpines, to offer them to amateurs at a 
low price. We hope to be able to supply foreign nurserymen with 
these plants from seed, so they will have no more occasion to get their 
stock from the mountains.” 
After a hundred pages about the origin, and distribution, and 
native conditions of alpine plants, we come-to the more practical part 
of the book, which concerns their selection and their cultivation. 
The flora of the Alps, we are reminded, is the richest in the world, 
* Les Plantes des Alpes. By H. Correvon, Directeur de Jardin d’Accli¬ 
matation, Geneve. 
