SWISS FLOWERS. 71 



broken, ground, at a height of from 6,500 to 8,500 feet 

 above the sea, so far as my experience goes, is its favourite 

 habitat. Still, though met with often in certain localities, it 

 is, on the whole, a rather rare flower, and one does not 

 generally expect to find more than three or four colonies of 

 it in a month's walk." A correspondent of the Garden 

 says : " We have walked over many miles of mountain- 

 meadow with the Edelweiss always within sight, and to be 

 gathered as easily as any other Alpine flower. It is, of 

 course, necessary to ascend to a certain elevation to get the 

 plant, but so it is in the case of scores of others, many of 

 which are more difficult to obtain than this." The Rev. H. 

 Smelt, of Wilcott Vicarage, Marlborough, in 1872, brought 

 some in paper to Fraukfort, where it was potted in German 

 peat, and thus conveyed to England. It was there planted 

 in the open ground, and the following year produced one 

 bloom. The next year it had eleven, which stood in a fine 

 circle round the plant, but Mr. Smelt doubted then whether 

 the roots had extended beyond the German peat. These 

 mountain-plants may last for a year or two, but very gene- 

 rally dwindle away and disappear, as if they pined for their 

 clear mountain air and the long, steady, covering of snow 

 which they can never have in this country. 



G. dioicum (Fig. 52) is a pretty form of Everlasting, 

 growing usually not so high as the Edelweiss, but like it 

 drying well, its pink tips looking for years almost as pretty 



