ALPS AND ALPINES.* THERE never was such a gleeful writer
about alpines as Mr. Reginald Ferrer. To one who is not of the same mind as himself such enthusiasm might be overpowering. To the lover of alpine plants, who should be, like Mr. Ferrer, some- thing of a botanist as well as a gardener, Among the Hills is verily delightful. The title is deceptive ; for "hills" is surely not an apt description of the Graian, Cottian, and Maritime Alps. Mr. Ferrer takes as a sub.title, "A Book of Joy in High Places," and that it truly is. Indeed, he has a right to be joyful, for at the end of his six weeks' collecting trip he can write that, with one exception (Gentiana Bodoni), there was not a single plant that he went to see which he did not succeed in finding. And what a list of rarities and treasures he collected and brought home. No wonder his pen, or typewriter, is gleeful. "I threw glee into my tones," says Mr. Ferrer, when his companion shied at the Oiriegia Pass and required encouragement; but the glee with which be describes his climbs afterwards appears unaffected. Besides there never was a writer about alpines with such a varied and copious vocabulary. When we know the plant we rejoice at the aptness of the epithet applied to it. When we do not we stare blankly and read on: "Sleek," "dainty," "lovable," "cosy," "winsome," and so on through the scale up to "perfectly perfect." But even then Mr. Farrer's vocabulary is not nearly exhausted ; for he still has a dozen words like " miffy " and " mimpish" in store. This trip began with the Mont Cenis on June 22nd; but that was a trifle early for some plants, and some places were still snowed over, so he returned later. There is, probably, no place in the Alps so easy of access for those who want a glimpse of the glorious meadow vegetation ; and they cannot do better than follow throughout Mr. Farrer's footsteps. On the Mont Cenis he writes that he saw "the most resplendent display of moun- tain flowers that I have ever seen in my life." Thence by Turin up to Bobbio and Sareifraga valdensis. So on to the baths of Yaldieri and Saxifraga florulenta There was some scrambling on rocks and snow at various spots. What a relief to drive along the Venanson road where half a dozen first-class rarities can be picked a few yards from the carriage. From the Mediterranean Mr. Farrer went north again by the Col di Tenda. It would be idle to give a catalogue of treasures. Does the reader want to find that very rare plant Banda spinosa P "I don't advise you to," says Mr. Ferrer. "It is an ugly dowdy." And so be betrays the gardener in botanist's clothing. No find pleased Mr. Farrer more than Daphne irupestris on the Rocca Longs.. Does the reader know where it grows and why it is so precious P Mr. Farrer usually gives detailed instructions to find the place. But when we come to (1) Among the Hills. By Reginald Ferrer. London: Headley Brothers. [10s. ad. net.)—(2) The Flower Fields of Alpine Switzerland. Paintod and wriitmn by G. Flomwoll. With 26 Reproductions a Water-Colour Drawings. London; Hutchinson and Co, pa. not.] Primula Allioni, rarest and most precious of its race, he is discreet and plays us a scurvy trick. Let the reader who wants details and the guide of a gleeful collector buy the book, The coloured plates are excellent. It is hard to choose between the individual plants by Mrs. Addington Symonds and the landscapes, by Mr. George Soper, ablaze with flowers, backed by snow and rock and sky.
Passing now to Mr. Flemwell's pretty book 27th Flower. Fields of Alpine Switzerland we have a volume much like the last which this same painter and writer gave us a year or so ago. It is a book in which the enchanting coloured illustra- tions are the pleasing feature and the text subsidiary. Let us therefore begin with the plates. There are few water-colour painters who possess in a higher degree the art of depicting the scenery of the Alps. Mr. Flem well's colours are dean, and, gorgeous though the colouring is, the tints are never crude. Ho loves a snow field at the back and a blazing meadow of flowers in the foreground. When he paints individual plants and groups, in some corner of a field or on some ledge of rook, his detail is minute enough to satisfy the botanist. His water colours are admirably reproduced, and a note informs us that the originals are on sale at the Dor6 Galleries, "where all inquiries may be addressed." The text, plainly, was written for the plates. Mr, Farrer was a gardener first and a botanist next; Mr. Flemwell is a painter first and the gardener-botanist only crops out at intervals. He ends with a not very convincing or practioal plea that lovers of alpines should turn their attention to field plants and reproduce an alpine meadow as a companion to their rock-work. His chapters are discursive essays with allusions, more or less apt, to the writings of Ruskin and Birrell and the witticisms of Mr. Dooley and Mr. Shaw He recommends Lao Champex as a good flower region for the average easy-going visitor to the Alps. This place he made his own "base of operations." The inverted commas are Mr. Flerawell's, and many hundreds are scattered over the pages. He leads us to no rarities of exceptional interest; but what a valuable companion to a party of botanists on a plant-hunting expedition Mr. Flemwell would be ! He tells us seriously that he has a mystical power of finding rare flowers—perhaps there was only one specimen within the district for miles round—" by something in their nature being in tune with something in mine." Let us, how- ever, end by repeating that Mr. Flemwell's water colours are of rare excellence.
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