22 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



that fascinating little Yellow Violet ( Viola biflorci), 

 looking, as always, so delieiously fresh, as if both 

 flower and foliage had just been washed by rain. 



We are now nearing the pine forest, and we had 

 best leave the gully and ' make tracks ' across tlie 

 Anemone and Gentian decked slopes until we 

 strike our path. As we clamber up the gulley's 

 side, and just at its crest, there is a close, over- 

 hanging growth of Mountain Avens [Dry as octo- 

 petala), a truly arresting object, clothed as it is in 

 a purity of white and gold. Further on, as we 

 traverse the slopes, we come upon the dense, mossy 

 mounds of the Cushion Pink {Silene acaulis), 

 radiant with their tiny pink blossoms. And here 

 and there, just on the outskirts of the forest's 

 sombre shade, is Erica carnea, the Alpine Heath, 

 earliest of spring's mountain wonders ; not now, it 

 is true, in perfection, but lingering, as it were, to 

 Avelcome us ere we descend to our hotel. 



This, as has already been stated, is but an 

 impressionist sketch, a broad and general survey 

 of a scene which any language or any pen is, at 

 best, inadequate to describe. The only way is to 

 see it for oneself, and to see it again, and then 

 again. A visit such as the one we have just paid 

 to Nature's own garden is bound to entail a second 



