140 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



potts suggests : it i§ more than * merely a theatre 

 for the display of hundreds of little plants.' Here, 

 in an hour or so, the visitor can gather an amount 

 of information and experience equal, and possibly 

 superior, to any he may amass in weeks of touring 

 over the mountains. The seeking out of Alpines 

 in their wild state has, of course, its indisputable 

 value ; but — and this is by no means rare — much 

 may be noticed during these rambles which is 

 liable to mislead if experience of the Alps and 

 their flora is but slight. The tourist-observer is 

 apt to meet with plants in exceptional circumstance, 

 and to take note of this circumstance as if it were 

 the rule. If, then, on his return home, he there 

 treats such plants according to the experience he 

 gathered of them in the Alps, he is more than 

 likely to find that he has been led astray. 



Let us take a case in point. Let us take, for 

 instance, Gentiana verna, one of the most widely 

 distributed of Alpines in Switzerland, and yet, by 

 all accounts, one with which but small success is 

 achieved in England. Now, the visitor will, if he 

 follow a very general custom, only arrive in the 

 Alps when this Gentian has gone out of flower on 

 the pastures, its usual home. If he find it in flower 

 at all, it will probably be higher up and upon rocks 



