PART L] NOTES OF A JOURNEY IN THE ALPS 115 



charming in alpine vegetation : its vivid colour and peerless 

 beauty stamp themselves on the mind of the traveller that 

 crosses the Alps as deeply as the wastes of snow, the silvery 

 waterfalls, or the dark plumy ridges of Pines, though it be but a 

 diminutive plant. It is there a little gem of life in the midst 

 of death, buried under the deep all-shrouding snow for six or even 

 eight months out of the twelve, and blooming during the 

 summer days near the margin of the wide glaciers, and within 

 the sound of the little snow cataracts that tumble off the high 

 Alps in summer. But it is not confined to such awful spots ; it 

 descends to the crests of low mountains like this, where the 

 sun's heat has power to drive away all the snow in spring, and 

 where the snow is quickly replaced with boundless meadows of 

 the richest grass, that form a setting for innumerable flowers. 

 Among these the " blue Gentian " occurs, and blooms abundantly 

 late in spring, while acres of the same kind lie deep and dormant, 

 under the cold snow, on the slope of the high neighbouring alp 

 for months afterwards. This brilliant Gentian is very plentiful 

 in the pastures here, but it is already passed out of flower, and 

 the seed vessels, full and strong, are seen among the taller 

 herbage. Alpine travellers, botanists, and writers say that this 

 lovely plant and its fellows cannot be cultivated, and Dean 

 Close echoed this in describing in Good Words his passage 

 over the Simplon an idea quite erroneous, as the plant is of 

 easy culture, even on the level ground. 



On one side we have the Jura range, and the wide sunny 

 valley, cultivated in every spot below the town of Geneva, and, 

 between the Jura and our position, the lower part of the Lake of 

 Geneva, scarcely fluttered by the breeze, the countless pleasant 

 spots along its shores, and issuing from it the blue waters of 

 the Ehone. Many green and well-pastured mountains lie 

 beyond, with dark clouds of Pinewoods on their sides and 

 summits. Others still higher, and with the verdure less visible, 

 are behind, and, above all, a great, bony, steep-scarped, dark 

 range, stretching all across the view. 



The variety and beauty of the country traversed on descend- 

 ing the other side of the Saleve, and the margins of calm celestial- 



