PART L] NOTES OF A JOURNEY IN THE ALPS 129 



the spur of a mountain, on which Cyclamens peep forth here 

 and there from among the shattered stones sometimes hand- 

 some tufts, where the position has favoured them, and now 

 and then springing in a miniature condition from some chink, 

 where there was very little " soil." Lower down we met with 

 the neat Tunica on the tops of walls, and it continued to 

 appear for some distance higher up, rarely looking so pretty 

 as when well cultivated. The Maiden-hair Fern does not 

 ascend up the mountain sides, nor even find a home in the 

 villages up the valley, though in the town of Lecco it adorns 

 the mill-wheels and moist walls near watercourses, with abund- 

 ance of small plants adhering closely to the wall, and dwarf 

 from existing on moisture or very little more. As we ascend, 

 the fine flowers of Geranium sanguineum are everywhere 

 seen ; while Aconites, Lilies, are here and there. The 

 Orange Lily is a great ornament hereabouts one on most 

 inaccessible cliffs of the mountain, with its bold flowers like 

 a ball of fire in the starved wiry grass. The Martagon Lily 

 is also abundant. Dwarf Cytisuses are great ornaments to 

 the rocks, and here and there the leaves of Hepatica are 

 mingled with those of Cyclamen, suggesting bright pictures 

 of spring. The Cyclamens are deliciously sweet, and the 

 great spread of the alpine Forest Heath, seen in all parts, must 

 afford a lovely show of colour in spring. 



We think we have taken leave of all the meadow-land, when 

 the hills again begin to break into small pastures, where 

 Orchises, Phyteumas, Arnica, Inula, Harebells, and a host 

 of meadow plants, struggle for the mastery. Soon we come 

 to great isolated masses of erect rock, whose surface is quite 

 shattered and decayed in every part ; and, after half-an-hour 

 among these, see, far up, rosettes of the blue flowers of Phyteuma 

 comosum, projecting about two inches from the rock. The 

 rosettes are as wide as the plant is high, and much larger 

 than the leaves, which are of a light glaucous colour. We 

 ascend far above these rocks, and find the mountain-side has 

 broken into wide gentle slopes, park-like, with birch and other 

 indigenous trees here and there, but, for the most part, a great 



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