SUMMER IN THE ALPS 79 



little stream is overflowing its usual course? It 

 must be Cotton-Grass ; not the common Cotton- 

 Grass with pendant white tassels, but Eriophoruni 

 Scheuchzeri, sometimes known as the Hare's-tail 

 Rush, with one large, erect, silky, white plume — an 

 ideal thing of which to gather a quantity for the 

 winter decoration of our vases. When it is seen 

 growing, as is not infrequently the case, witli 

 quantities of the laughing-blue Bavarian Gentian, 

 the harmonious delight of colour is such as is verily 

 *fit food for the gods'! Gentlana bavarica, like 

 many another water-loving Alpine, is not a marsh 

 plant, as is the Cotton-Grass ; when this Gentian 

 associates with the Cotton-Grass, it is always upon 

 the drier, more substantial spots amid the marshy 

 ground. Those who see such plants growing in 

 moist ground, and who wisli to succeed with them 

 in their gardens at home, should remember that 

 throughout the long winter months here in the 

 Alps the ground is frozen hard and dry. Failure 

 will dog all attempts to treat this Gentian (and 

 many another Alpine which loves water during the 

 summer) as a bog-plant in England. 



Now, bearing to the right, we will follow along 

 the slopes which lead to the turfy shoulder of the 

 peak on the opposite side of the gorge to that by 



