SPRING IN THE ALPS 15 



and we are face to face with one of the most 

 perfect of Alpine landscapes imaginable. From 

 where we are standing, a glory of colour, broken 

 here and there by great grey boulders and the 

 dark, rich foliage of Rhododendron-bushes, stretches 

 up and away until it dies in a haze of lively tints 

 against the slopes and rugged cliffs of a stately 

 snow-clad Alp. The transition has been so un- 

 expectedly sudden as to surprise all utterance, and 

 it is some time before we can reaHze our feelings. 

 Rumour and report have not exaggerated ; they 

 have not even done justice to the scene. All 

 fatigue has fled ; energy is in the air, and pervades 

 everything. We are indeed in fairyland ! 



The feast opens with gentle slope rising above 

 slope, clothed with close, moss-hke grass of a bril- 

 liance such as only the Alps can produce, and strewn 

 with a profusion of Bell-Gentian, known casually 

 as Gentiana acaulis, but strictly as G. Kochiana 

 or G. excisa, in all its varying shades, from 

 rich French-blue to dark blue-purple ; while, 

 waving gently in the stirring air over this 

 dazzling carpet of blue and gi-een, are hosts of the 

 large and lovely white Anemone [Anemone alpina)^ 

 happy hunting-ground of 'the irreverent, buccaneer- 

 ing bee,' working already witii all his proverbial 



