112 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



peasants manufacture into jam and wine ; it is 

 often in the company of Arbutus, or Arctostaphylos 

 Uva Ursi, the Bearberry, with scarlet fruit of 

 astringent medicinal qualities. Then there is 

 Vaccinium uliginosum, with blue-black fruit, edible 

 — though harmful in large quantities — and some- 

 what smaller than the Bilberry, by the side of 

 which it is frequently found, and with whicli it 

 is frequently confounded. The latter plant — 

 the Bilberry {V, myrtillus) — is productive of an 

 astringent jam used in cases of dysentery ; also 

 of an agreeable syrup and a fermented wine, besides 

 providing an excellent dessert-fruit, whose stain 

 is ruination to the table-linen ! 



Here, then, is an outline of what Autumn has to 

 offer to those who court her in the Alps ; surely 

 not a season upon which to turn our backs in fear 

 of ennui ? It is a pity that the majority of visitors, 

 obedient to Tradition, should so much shun the 

 mountains at this time of year, and, as September 

 arrives, make haste to gain the towns. By such 

 unquestioning obedience are they robbed of much 

 that is delightful, much also that is profitable. 

 Facts prove that over and over again they worsen 

 rather than better their circumstance. Facts prove 

 that, generally speaking, Autumn is finer in the 



