Review. 
*95 
REVIEW. 
ALPINE AND SUBALPINE PLANTS. 
Alpine Plants of Europe , together with Cultural Hints. By 
Harold Stuart Thompson, F.L.S. Pp. xvi + 274 + 64 coloured 
plates and a General Map of the Alps. London: George Routledge 
& Sons, Ltd., 1911. Price Is. 6d. 
Suhalpine Plants, or Flozvers of the Swiss Woods and Meadoivs, 
By H. Stuart Thompson, F.L.S. Pp. xvi + 325 + 33 coloured 
plates and a (contoured) Map of the Alps (Bartholomew). London : 
George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1912. Price 7s. 6d. 
M R. STUART THOMPSON’S two books are designed to supply 
the need of well illustrated English works describing the more 
beautiful and interesting species indigenous to the High Alps and 
the suhalpine region (i.e., from about 3,000 to 5,000 feet) respectively. 
It has been remarked that while the plants of the High Alps (the 
alpines proper) are, on account of their beauty and their striking 
difference from those of the plains, naturally those which attract 
the greatest notice from visitors to Switzerland, nevertheless most 
of the mountain resorts are situated in or but slightly above the 
suhalpine zone, and the tourist interested in Botany therefore needs 
something more than descriptions of the “high alpines” alone. 
From this point of view the two books before us most usefully 
supplement one another. At the same time, each is complete in 
itself, for of course no rigid line has or can be drawn between the 
two floras: many of the subalpines range up to great altitudes and 
some of the high alpines descend well into the suhalpine zone. 
The plan of both books is the same. The bulk of the work 
consists of systematic descriptions of a large selection of the 
indigenous plants, illustrated by coloured plates on each of which 
several species are grouped, and prefaced by a few chapters dealing 
with the nature, characteristics, and distribution of alpine and 
suhalpine plants, with their culture in “ rock-gardens,” with the 
best methods of collecting and preserving them, and so on. The 
second book has also an interesting chapter on the gardens which 
have been established, especially during recent years, in various 
parts of the Alps. 
In the introductory chapters Mr. Thompson discusses the 
question of altitude in relation to the distribution of plants, and 
points out that so many factors are involved as to make it impossible 
in the vast majority of cases to lay down anything like exact 
altitudinal limits for the distribution of a species. Climate, exposure 
(really involving a local change of climate), soil, and physiography 
all profoundly influence the heights at which different species grow. 
At the same time many useful altitudinal data, largely based on 
Mr. Thompson’s own observations, are recorded in these books. 
The second work ( Suhalpine Plants) also contains a useful 
comparison w T ith the Flora of Britain, 
