70 SWISS FLOWERS. 



charm of it, however, is that it will keep for years, and then 

 look almost as well as when fresh gathered. The flowers 

 grow in terminal heads, which have the appearance of yel- 

 low and black dots ; but the remarkable thing about them is 

 that they are imbedded in irregular bracteas, which spread 

 round them in the form of petals, and give the flower a 

 starlike appearance. These bracts are of various sizes, the 

 largest about an inch long, and they look as if cut oat of 

 whitish soft flannel or felt. It is these specially that retain 

 their appearance for so long a time. The lanceolate leaves 

 are of a darker hue, and are also covered with a flannel- 

 like down ; the stems have often a touch of pink in them. 

 It is said to grow from seed, and to be easily cultivated. 

 Sunny Alpine pastures : Top of the Dole, Mont Vergy, 

 Great St. Bernard, Mont Chambrion, Valley of Bagnes, 

 pastures of Grunberg, Valley of Saas, rocky pastures of 

 Albula in the Engadine, Zermatt above the English church, 

 Mont Trelod, Mont Cenis, above Lauterbrunnen. A corre- 

 spondent of the Times, in answer to a remark of Mr. Bonar 

 in his Chamois-Hunting, to the effect that, strangely enough, 

 the Edelweiss grows in parts only to be reached with great 

 danger, says : " The fact is, that I have met with the Edel- 

 weiss in almost every part of the Alps, from Dauphine to 

 the Dolomites, and, though no doubt it sometimes grows in 

 places like those Mr. Bonar describes, I have been accus- 

 tomed to gather it without difticulty or danger. Rugged, 



