170 



HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



little villages are at a distance, they are not inviting 

 to either eye or nose when more closely inspected. 



Soon after leaving the latter place the path bears 

 to the right for some distance, and runs high above 

 the noisy rapid stream below. On the left are rocky 

 precipices, on the right steep grassy slopes inclining 

 at such an angle as to make it unsafe to traverse 

 them without an alpine stock and spiked boots. 



On these slopes were quantities of Gentiana acatdis 

 and an occasional Anemone Alpina. I saw two white 

 flowers of the gentian, one of which I secured. An 

 occasional patch of level ground on the left afforded 

 numerous examples of Cephalanthera ensifolia. 



Just before reaching Esino Inferiore there are open 

 meadows with fruit trees on both sides of the path, 

 and in these meadows, amongst other things, I found 

 Trolliwn Europeum, Narcisstis poeticus, and Orchis 

 tephrosanthos abundant, the two first especially so. 

 There is an hotel at Esino Inferiore which is much 

 frequented in July and August by people who in 

 those hot months prefer fresh mountain air to the 

 sweltering heat of the plains below, but it was not 

 yet open. 



Just beyond this hotel the path diverges right and 

 left, the latter leading into Esino Superiore, the other 

 direct to the path on the ridge. 



Taking the former, I reached the upper village in 

 about five minutes, but in passing through left it by 

 a street which I presently found bore away too much 

 to the left. 



As it was now about one o'clock, I sat down on a 

 rough grassy bank to eat my luncheon, and was very 

 agreeably surprised to see a quantity of the pretty 

 Anemone ranunculoidcs growing on this bank and in 

 the little pasture just beyond. It was not, however, 

 nearly so fine here as I had seen it a few years ago 

 on the mountains opposite Tremezzo, probably owing 

 to some difference in the soil. 



But what gave me greater pleasure than finding 

 the anemone was the sight of three eagles soaring 

 high above the valley. I watched them for several 

 minutes with my field glass, but after soaring round 

 and round in wide and graceful sweeps, they ulti- 

 mately passed out of sight over the ridge. 



I saw these fine birds on two or three subsequent 

 occasions, and there could be no doubt as to their 

 species. 



Returning to the village, I hit the right road, and 

 again began to mount, passing through alps and 

 woods as before. 



The prevailing trees are walnuts and chestnuts. 



The road was now steeper and rougher, and the 

 sun, full on my back, made the climb all the more 

 toilsome ; but the quite unexpected find of a plant of 

 the rare Erythronium dens-cams made me at once 

 forget the heat and toilsome climb, and I set to work 

 to look for further specimens of the find of the day. 

 After a long search I discovered five or six more 

 plants in flower, and having secured a couple of 



specimens I passed on, and in about half-an-hour the 

 Cainallo Pass was full in view, but some very wet- 

 looking clouds appeared to be coming up from the 

 valley beyond. 



Twenty minutes more brought me to a beautiful 

 alp, which sloped up to the ridge over which the 

 path ran. About half-way up this alp the little 

 stream I had been following up all the morning takes 

 its rise, and just at its source I found a few plants of 

 Gagea Liottardi in full flower, and scattered about in 

 the grass around plenty of plants (in flower) of Croats 

 vemiis. 



Still higher up, and about one hundred yards 

 below the ridge, Helleboncs nigcr was growing and 

 flowering in profusion. The flowers varied in colour 

 from snow-white to green and white flushed with 

 crimson purple, and presented a sight such as what 

 the late Mr. Ball called "the poverty-stricken flora" 

 of Europe rarely affords. 



By the time I reached the ridge it was past two 

 o'clock, and as I had at least five hours' walk before 

 me, I lost no time in commencing my descent into 

 the Val Sassina, which I could see, two thousand feet 

 below me, stretching away to the right towards Lecco, 

 and to the left towards Bellano. 



The side of the range on which I now found 

 myself descends very abruptly to the valley and the 

 precipices immediately to the right, and just under 

 Mount Codeno, which rears its dolomitic peaks four 

 thousand feet above the level of the pass, are sur- 

 prisingly grand, but to a certain extent softened by 

 the foliage which more or less clothes them and 

 conceals their precipitous and rugged forms. 



Unfortunately, I had hardly begun my descent 

 before the threatened rain came on, and in a few 

 minutes it was raining heavily. This and the ex- 

 ceeding steepness and roughness of the path, which 

 descends by numerous zigzags through underwood 

 which meets overhead, made this part of the ex- 

 cursion anything but agreeable. It was not alto- 

 gether without its compensations, however, for I 

 found and gathered good examples of the curious 

 Ranunculus thora and the pretty Primula calycina, a 

 species very like viscosa — so common on the St. 

 Gotthardt in June — but distinguished therefrom by 

 its calyx and the foliage, which is not dentated as in 

 that species. 



About an hour's walk took me to the level of the 

 valley. I was at first surprised, on looking at my 

 aneroid, to see that it still showed an elevation of 

 more than two thousand feet, and I began to think 

 it was playing me false. 



However, after a long and, in consequence of the 

 wet, weary tramp over a very rough road, which 

 consisted mostly of ups and downs, but which on the 

 whole gradually descended to the level of the lake, I 

 at length reached Bellano, when, on again referring 

 to the aneroid, I found that from the point where I 

 had entered the valley down to the lake's level there 



