90 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



But the pursuit of floral beauty — the pursuit of 

 Botany, or the mere dilettante enthusiasm for 

 plucking desirable flowers — in the Alps is not 

 necessarily rash and dangerous. Danger exists 

 anywhere the moment we act dangerously, and 

 it is a mistake to think that we must necessarily 

 risk broken bones, or perhaps our lives, in order 

 to gather Edelweiss. The popular atmosphere 

 surrounding tliis plant is charged with a goodly 

 percentage of exaggeration. It is not rare for 

 people fresh to Switzerland to pay her their first 

 visit with brains obsessed by strange, weird myths 

 and notions of Edelweiss and all things Alpine. 

 Even in the plains, a simple Rhubarb-tart is made 

 of Alpine Rhubarb, and is relished accordingly 

 with untold ecstasy ; and when the immediate 

 region of the Alps is reached, and eyes peer out 

 through the distorting hazes of Tradition, mere 

 Marguerites have been known to take on the 

 face and form of Edelweiss ! 



Edelweiss does, of course, grow often in sheer, 

 precipitous places, but it is also often to be found 

 within quite easy reach, and where there is no 

 shadow of danger to life or hmb. On one occasion 

 (before the forts monopoHzed the superb rock of 

 Dailly) I watched for over an hour, through 



