A COLLECTING DAY ABOVE AROLLA 177 
our English Houseleek, is good and useful. Not far off 
are triste, Wulfeni, Reginae-Amaliae. Rubicundum is 
smaller than these last, rare, and very rich in colour, the 
whole rosette being deep ruby-claret. But of the larger 
species the finest, to my taste, is the rather uncommon 
Gaudini from the Southern Alps. ‘The rosettes of this 
are big, ball-like, clear green, and furry with innumerable 
small bristles. It sends out babies on long feelers, and 
carries a stout head of lemon yellow flowers like Catherine- 
wheels. Gaudini, too, thrives here far better than most 
of its kindred, and in more ordinary soil. Sempervivum 
calcaratum, if what I have is true, and not confused with 
calcareum, is magnificent in size and shape; and Laggeri 
is a charming wee thing, half the size of little arach- 
noideum, but otherwise similar, with the same downy 
white globes. For all these—at least in the rainy North 
—I advise as little soil as possible, some mere crevice in 
a rock with a pinch of earth, exposed to every ray of sun, 
and as little troubled by rains as you can manage. And 
if you wish to specialise on Sempervivum—and you could 
have no worthier subject—there are Houseleeks beyond 
number, as the sands of the sea, all more or less casuisti- 
cally differentiated from the species I have mentioned, 
which represent the typical beauties of the race,—dainty 
and delightful as is every other Sempervivum that has 
ever been glorified with a name to itself. 
The way grows hotter as it mounts, and there is no 
stick or twig of shelter. ‘The heat seems almost too 
much for all flowers except the Salamander-hearted 
Sempervivums, for the only other thing which the slopes 
above Evolena yielded me was a single, narrow, purple 
spike of Campanula spicata. But erelong the way leads 
on into a scattered woodland where Campanula pusilla 
runs riot over the sun-dappled stony slope between the 
rare trees. In light and shade it thrives equally, and 
