4 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



Our most insistent demand is for something more 

 in tune with the human joie de vivre — for some 

 more intimate touch of Nature which will make 

 all things akin. And this, assuredly, the flowers 

 contribute to the otherwise superb melancholy of 

 the Alps. 



I know of no more dream-like and inspiring sight 

 than when, in early spring-time, the mystic Alps, 

 ridding themselves of their superfluous snows, are 

 thundering down avalanches over their mighty 

 crags and cliffs, and yet the while, in the tranquil, 

 grassy foreground lies a lovely new-born wealth 

 of Soldanella. Here at once is tlie melancholy, 

 mystic grandeur of winter healthily allied with the 

 more intimate interest of living colour, making of 

 the whole an experience whose appeal is, and must 

 be, far more irresistible and general than if winter 

 stood alone, mistress of the entire landscape. 



* One cannot be, and ought not to be, for ever 

 on the snow.' This is the opinion of that veteran 

 Alpinist and lover of the Alps, Mr. Frederick 

 Harrison, in speaking of ' the superstition that 

 glaciers and snow-peaks are the only things in the 

 Alps worth coming to see.' He dubs it *a silly 

 conceit'; and so, undoubtedly, it is. Let it be 

 repeated : whiteness for man is a luxury. Among 



