SUMMER IN THE ALPS 87 



truths ,' and of few, if any, things is this more true 

 than of plants, and of that all-round study of plants 

 which Botany should mean. 



But here we are at length at the first cow-chalet, 

 and we may as well sit down awhile. We have 

 been walking for nearly five hours, and have earned 

 a meed of repose. Not that five hours' walking is 

 any extraordinary feat in the Alps ! With such 

 pure, invigorating air, and so much to absorb atten- 

 tion, five hours pass as easily as, and with no more 

 fatigue than, one hour will pass on a close and 

 dusty high-road in the plains. The flies ? No, no ; 

 we shall not now be bothered by the flies! Just 

 before sunset is their bed-time, and at that hour 

 they disappear as if by magic. We may sit down 

 with perfect equanimity beside this ancient, storm- 

 worn cross, where the little cow-boy is busily tying 

 up blossoms of the purple Alpine Viola into bunches 

 to dry for Winter use as tea for chills and colds. 



How peaceful is the glorious panorama : true 

 type, in every way, of the bright, seductive side 

 of Alpine circumstance ! On yonder tall Alpine 

 Thistle the lovely Apollo butterfly has already 

 closed its vermilion-eyed wings in sleep ; fi-om 

 yonder cowshed musically troop the cows, after 

 some hours of comparative seclusion from their 



