In Wild Swiss Gardens 



that I am sure I could have picked specimens 

 every yard of the way ; our British Prunella 

 vulgaris was almost as abundant, and equally 

 careless whether it grew at a high or a low eleva- 

 tion. The monkshood also has a very wide range : 

 on ^the lower levels it had evidently long past 

 flowering, but on the higher elevations it was still 

 abundant and very handsome. Just under the top 

 of the Gwennenalphorn I came upon several 

 circular pits, two or three yards wide and perhaps 

 a yard across, caused, I suppose, by some natural 

 subsidence of the soil ; these pits were filled with 

 monkshood in full flower and of a very deep 

 colour, and the circular shape of the pits crammed 

 with the flowers gave them almost the appearance 

 of artificial flower-beds. On the very top of the 

 same Horn I found good flowering tufts of the 

 lovely Saxifraga coesia ; some good plants of 

 Achillea moschata, also in flower ; plenty of the 

 pretty Astrantia minor, which I look at with 

 envy, for I never succeeded in growing it, and I 

 know of no one in England who has been really 

 successful with it ; while the very top was a thick 

 bed of peat carpeted with Azalea procumbeus still 

 carrying a few flowers. Very near the top I found 

 a few good bunches of the Alpen rose, a shrub 

 that always interests me, because, as far as I 

 know, it is the only hardy rhododendron, except 

 R. Davuricum (probably only a geographical 

 variety), which will grow in calcareous soil. I 

 have old plants in my Gloucestershire garden, 

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