42 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



of an Alpine, and so is allowed to pass in amongst 

 the elite, and is it that the Nettle's more vulgar, 

 plebeian appearance is a too heavy handicap in 

 this regard ? Certainly our old friend the Nettle — 

 no matter what Jean Jacques Rousseau may have 

 found in its favour as a garden plant — lacks Alpine 

 refinement, and looks sadly out of place amid 

 Alpine scenery, although that faithful companion, 

 the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly, may do its 

 charming, extra-vivid best to make amends for 

 the graceless intrusion of its ill-conditioned food- 

 plant. 



There is a curious fact about the Alpine wander- 

 ings of the Nettle which is worthy of notice. 

 Although it is ready to sting him upon the slightest 

 provocation, this Nettle appears really amicably 

 disposed towards man. It seems to love to be 

 with him, and to go where he goes, even following 

 him up to the glaciers. For, as far as I have 

 observed, it is not found in a really wild and lonely 

 state in Alpine altitudes, but only where the soil 

 has been disturbed by the peasant and his beasts 

 Around cattle-sheds and chalets, however remote 

 these may be, one can generally count upon finding 

 this Nettle ; but away from all human habitation or 

 human influence one never meets with it ; at least, 



