Piora 



of the bushes, and well protected by them, I 

 found Maianthemum bifolium, Pyrola rotundifolia, 

 and other gems. And I think it was worth all 

 the journey to Piora if only to see the St Bruno's 

 lily (Paradisia liliastrum) in flowers. The first 

 flowers were showing themselves when I was 

 there ; but I am told that when in full flower the 

 hillsides are white with them, and that they can 

 be gathered in sheaves. I have grown it for 

 many years and admired it, but I never realised 

 its supreme beauty till I saw it on its native hill- 

 sides. There surely can be no flower more 

 thoroughly beautiful, while the whiteness of the 

 flowers is the nearest approach to absolute purity 

 that can be conceived. I shall never forget it 

 as I saw it first at Piora. Growing with the 

 St Bruno's lily, and in many other places, was a 

 large quantity of the fine yellow Alpine anemone 

 (A. sulphured], which I had seen before in its full 

 beauty on the Furka Pass, where one hillside was 

 so covered with it that at a considerable distance 

 the whole hillside looked yellow ; but at Piora 

 the time of flowering was past yet the beauty was 

 not gone, for the heads with their many- feathered 

 seeds were very beautiful. 



It is very tempting to say more of the many 

 beautiful flowers that I saw, but time and space 

 would fail me ; but there is one plant that I must 

 on no account pass by. The Cobweb Sempervivum 

 (S. arachnoideum) is everywhere, clinging to chinks 

 in the rocks, and of wonderful beauty ; there were 

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