Riviera Nature Notes - A Popular Account Of The More Conspicuous Plants And Animals Of The Riviera And The Maritime Alps

Natural History Notes were written at 1 different times and in different moods during --a long residence on the Riviera. My first stay in the South was before the annexation of Nice to France, when railways were as yet unknown in this part of the world. Having spent as many as twelve summers in the mountain and subalpine villages of the Maritime Alps, these higher regions are as familiar to me as the narrow strip of land along the coast where strangers congregate. Sonle fifty of the chapters were written without, any thought of publication, and with no other aim than to occupy the scanty leisure of a bard-worked schoolmaster. The few remaining articles were added in order to make the series more complete. As the book is intended for those to whonl Natural History is a recreation, I have not thought it necessary to affect the sober style of a scientific treatise. Nor have I confined myself to remarks about the structure and affinities of the different species. For many of the plants which surround us here have an interest other than botanical. They are collnected with history, with mythology, and with vi PREFACE. the outward symbolism of religion they are enshrined in the literatures of Rome and Greece and Palestine, and associa. ted with the progress of mankind. To lose sight of this would be to do scanty justice to the subeject. Fault has been founcl wit11 tliese little sketches on the score of unconventionality and naivet6. It is a c rioucso incidence that Alphonse Karr, a classic I must not say another classic of the Riviera, was also somewhat unconventional and not quite free from naivet6. Possibly the climate may have something to do with it In order that the reader may know the worst, I mill mention one or two other shortcomings. Some pla. nts Castanea, for instance are worthy of a longer account than I have given of them others I have been compelled to omit altogether. Instead of one chapter, I should have liked tlo write half-a-dozen about the butterflies. But, whatever may be its imperfections, this is, I believe, the only book dealing in a general may with the Natural History of the Riviera. Of course I have but touched on a very small part of a vast field. The Geology alone f70uld form an interesting volume and much might be itt ten about the beetles, spiders, dragon-flies, land-shells, c. The district is changing rapidly. The spread of the toms, the disforesting of the hills, and other causes are conspiring to destroy many of the conditions mhich made the Biviera of former days so happy a resort for lovers of Xature. But there will always be much to observe and much to study in so favoured a region. In the last Chapter I mention a few of the problems mhich have interested me, and which I recommend to the attention of naturttlists. I arn pleased to find that these Nature Notes have been useful to Riviera visitors. From distinguished botanists the book has had a reception more flattering than I could possibly have expected. In the present edition I have corrected a few mistakes, supplied some omissions, and inserted a large number of illustrations. I am reluctantly compelled to omit Dr. Sturges interesting article on the Prehistoric Men of the Mentone Caves. I hope that this mill be published by him in the form of a pamphlet. For the convenience of foreign botanists I have giver1 the scientific as well as the English names of plants. Indeed, I am disposed to regard popular plant names as an unnecessary evil...