ILLUSTRATED BY REPRODUCTIONS
FROM DIRECT COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
BY THE AUTHOR
LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS, Ltd.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
Preface
The coloured plates of Alpine plants, which are the special feature of this book, are all reproduced from colour photographs taken directly from nature. The plants were all photographed exactly as they were found, with two exceptions, in the immediate neighbourhood of Rosenlaui in the Bernese Oberland during the month of July 1909; so that the pictures are true portraits of the flowers “at home.”
The Lumière process of colour photography which was used, depends on the action of light on a photographic plate after its passage through various coloured starch grains. The process is entirely beyond the control of the operator, and the exact colours are automatically reproduced. These photographs have in turn been carefully reproduced for this work by the three colour process.
The flowers here photographed were selected as good examples of common and typical species; and, of course, they represent but a very small portion of the rich flora of Switzerland. The present volume is intended as a short introduction to the subject, for the fuller study of which the following works are recommended:—
A. Gremli, “The Flora of Switzerland.” Translated by Paitson.