232 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 
Silenes, except palaestina, have too much chalk and 
magenta in their tones ever to please me. My prime 
favourite is the white-starred, dainty alpestris. 
Meanwhile, as we mount by the stream, over ribbed 
rocks, and gradually thinning herbage, the beauties of 
the upmost levels throng thick. These are the very 
axypatot exwa@ves of Hippolytos: purity is the dew that 
waters them, and the high Gods walk here, for all who 
choose to see. Against the grey stone shine in contrast 
the gold-and-violet suns of Aster alpinus amid the silver 
stars of Edelweiss. Like a dingy caricature of the Aster 
appears Hrigeron alpinus, and the grass is dotted with 
the deep, brown-crimson spikelets of Nigritella angusti- 
folia, delicious little Orchis, which is filled with the most 
rich and penetrating fragrance of Vanilla. ‘his, though 
I have oft collected it, I have never been able, worse luck, 
to get established. Down by the bed of the stream itself 
are the children of the bog. Saaifraga aeizoeides and the 
two Campanulas have been left far below, and their place 
is filled by the blues of Gentiana bavarica; the lighter, 
clearer colour of Myosotis rupicola ; the startling white- 
ness, against glossy green, of Ranunculus alpestris, grow- 
ing every minute more abundant; and the soft lilac of 
Soldanella with the rosy pinks of Primula farinosa. All 
these, of course, are for moist or marshy corners of your 
bog, with the exception of Myosotis alpestris and its 
variety, rupicola, which endure far heavier damp on the 
well-drained Alps than ever they will in cultivation ; 
where, on the contrary, though alpestris is an easy border 
plant, the much more lovely, delicate, and capricious 
rupicola requires very perfect drainage and protection 
from excessive moisture if you are to make it a sound 
perennial. For the bog, however, you may, of course, 
use cautiously our own brilliant native palustris, in some 
of its newer improved varieties, which never look better 
