70 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



health, of life, and of perfection — makes perhaps 

 the strongest appeal ; and the very natural inclina- 

 tion is for us to linger over such a wondrous series 

 of the freshest pinks as now surrounds us. Nor 

 does this glow of health's own colour find its limits 

 in the Roses. On the disintegrating sides of the rocks 

 to our left is a great quantity of two very lovely 

 Dianthus, Dianthus deltoides, and D. carthusian- 

 orum, the pale blush of the former's large, single 

 blossoms throwing the fiery little clustered flowers 

 of the latter into striking relief. With these 

 Rock-Pinks added to the Roses, harmonious 

 gaiety could go no farther ! And the grey-leaved 

 Absinthe — the plant which is in such profusion 

 beneath the Rose-bushes — is just the very setting 

 for this pink and rosy glory. It is an aesthetic and 

 a tuneful blend of colour, which even the most 

 ultra upholder of * the law against Absinthe ' must 

 admire, and admire aboundingly. 



We must now scramble up this slope, where 

 stands a waving group of the lovely hlac-plumed 

 Thalictrum, as it were better to avoid passing too 

 close to that cowshed ahead of us. We are not 

 lonely. Many an innocent tourist will call in- 

 quisitively at the first cowshed he comes to, and 

 so collect a horde of flies which wiU not leave his 



