Tour in the Eagadine. 75 



Captivated by tlieir beauty, we determined to take home 

 specimens of as many as possible, and at Samaden, the 

 principal village of the Engadiue, we purchased boards, 

 paper, Hallier's edition of Koch's " Flora," and Weber's 

 coloured pictures of Alpine plants. Unfortunately, the idea 

 of making a complete botanical collection did not at first 

 occur to us, and our list of plants will be found incomplete, 

 inasmuch as it omits cryptogams, grasses, sedges, &c., and 

 some plants which are either common at home or were too 

 bulky to make pretty specimens. 



At Samaden the Inn is joined by a considerable stream — 

 the Flatz, or Bernina Bach — and the tourist may either 

 proceed up the Inn to San Moritz, celebrated for its mineral 

 waters, and a great resort of invalids, or by the steeper 

 Bernina Valley to Pontresina. 



Pontresina is admirably situated as a centre for Alpine 

 excursions. To tlie westward, in the angle formed by the 

 Inn and the Flatz, rise the glorious group of the Bernina 

 Alps. The highest point, Piz Bernina, is 13,300 feet, and 

 the ascent, though difficult, is often made. Two great 

 glaciers, the Eosegg and tbe Morteratsch, stretch far down 

 towards the Flatz valley, and form highways by which 

 man penetrates these vast soKtudes. On the eastern side 

 of the valley Piz Languard (10,700 feet) and other moun- 

 tains ofi"er climbing, without either the attraction or the 

 danger of ice, and are clothed in many parts with a rich 

 and varied Flora. Less ambitious persons have only to cross 

 the stream to enjoy shady walks, where the banks under the 

 trees are carpeted with the creeping stems and tender pink- 

 lined cups of the Linncca horcalis. 



One morning I left Pontresina at 4 a.m., along witli a 

 friend, who was both a bold and cautious niountainer and 

 an accomplished botanist, and walked to Samaden, in order 

 to climb Piz Ot (the high peak) a superb granite pyramid, 

 whose summit reaches ] 0,650 feet above tbe sea. 



Leaving the village, we passed first through closely mown 

 meadows, where the lilac buds of Colchiaiin autumnale were 

 beginning to peep through the ground. Higher up among 

 the long grass grew the showy blossoms of Dianthus superhvs 

 and Knautia sylvatica. Still higher up was Gentiana cam- 

 2)estris, both purple and white, and when the sliouldcr of the 



