SOME SPRING AND SUMMER ALPINES 95 



popular Chardon 'Bleu of the Swiss, Panicaut or 

 Reine de VAlpe of the French, and Blue Thistle of 

 the English. It is not a common plant by any 

 means, seeking refuge, as it seems to do, in very 

 out-of-the-way places. Like the chamois, it is 

 known to most only by repute, or from captive 

 specimens, alive or dead. Nor is its distribution in 

 Switzerland a wide one ; it is said not to be found 

 at all in the Canton of Valais. Unfortunately, it 

 is one of the plants which has suffered most severely 

 at the hands of the vandal uprooter, and more than 

 once I have seen peasants hawking the roots amongst 

 the hotels of a mountain resort. There is a spot, 

 not a hundred miles from Montreux, where this 

 distinguished flower can be found in comparative 

 abundance, growing amid the Rhododendron-bushes; 

 but the area is a restricted one, and north, south, 

 east and west of it may be searched and drawn 

 blank. The popularity of the plant is such that 

 many a chrdet's plot of ground will possess it, 

 though possessing no other flower. I remember 

 once returning from the mountains to the plains 

 w^th several bunches of this Blue Thistle, which, 

 before reaching home, had been reduced to but 

 part of one bunch. In the train and on the steamer 

 people (all of them Swiss) begged and prayed for 



