Alpine Flora for Tourists and Amateur Botanists: with Text descriptive of the most Widely Distributed and Attractive Alpine Plants

Abstract

A NEW edition of Mrs. Gepp's English translation of this well-known flora will be welcomed by many to whom, though not themselves botanists, the flora of the Alps makes an irresistible appeal. The book itself is a tourists' flora rather than a scientific work. It aims at affording a ready means of recognising the more conspicuous or characteristic species of the Central European Alps—not merely the Swiss Alps. It lacks the “keys” to genera and species found in more scientific floras, such as Schinz and Keller's “Flora der Schweiz,” and, for purposes of identification, frankly relies, in the first instance, on its 43 coloured plates, on which the great majority of the species described are figured. Within the limits determined by the plan of the book, the brief descriptions in the text are good. Detailed floral structure is omitted, the diagnostic characters employed being for the most part those of habit, size, leaf, and perianth. Simple technical terms are freely used, but as there is an adequate glossary, amateurs should experience little difficulty. A slip occurs in the description of the species of Anemone, the perianth being referred to in one case as “sepals,” and in another as “petals.”

Alpine Flora for Tourists and Amateur Botanists: with Text descriptive of the most Widely Distributed and Attractive Alpine Plants.

By Dr. Julius Hoffmann. Translated by E. S. Barton (Mrs. A. Gepp). New edition. Pp. xiv + 121 + 43 plates. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1925.) 12s. 6d. net.