256 AN ALPINE EXCURSION. 



AN ALPINE EXCURSION. 



Permit me, dear reader, to set down a few hints, in case 

 you should at any time be disposed to make a pilgrimage 

 into the Golden Land, or El Dorado, of botanists and geolo- 

 gists. 



Before you plunge into the Alps, you will meet, in the sub- 



FIG. 59. An Alpine Landscape. 



alpine regions, among the valleys which intersect and the 

 meadows which clothe the lower spurs of the Jura, the Gen- 

 tiana campestris. It is a plant of from five to six inches in 

 height, whose blue, five-lobed corolla, with its velvety gorge, 

 changes into yellow when dried ; the two outer teeth of the 



