A SWISS INTERLUDE 



163 



paratively low-lying regions, where the necessary rocky 

 character exists. The flowers of the high Alpine 

 meadows are not the rock-lovers, the inhabitants of a 

 surface formed by fragments of broken rock, to which 

 the name " Alpine " is often limited. The meadow- 

 plants grow on good soil, and cover whole acres, in 

 which there is but little grass. The fields are coloured 

 of almost uniform blue or white or purple or yellow as 

 the weeks go on, and various species one after another 

 have their turn of dominance and maturity. 



I paid, first of all, a brief visit to Aix and the lakes 

 of Bourget and of Annecy, to the gorge of the River 

 Fier, and to the finely-situated monastery of the Grande 

 Chartreuse — a huge building, devoid of beauty, which 

 it seems to be difficult to utilize now that the Carthusian 

 Brothers have been expelled. The richly-coloured Alpine 

 centaury, deep blue and purple red, was growing in 

 the woods around it abundantly, and many other 

 handsome plants. Zoology was represented by most 

 excellent little trout provided for us at the village inn. 

 Then I stayed a couple of days at Geneva, where, in 

 a pool in a richly-planted rock garden — that of the 

 well-known horticulturist M. Correvon — I came across 

 what I have long wished to see, namely, the blue variety 

 of the edible frog. Six years ago I wrote an account of 

 the little blue frog of Mentone, the rare variety of the 

 green tree-frog, or rainette, so abundant in that region 

 (see "Science from an Easy Chair," p. 50: Methuen, 19 10). 

 The edible frog (Rana esculenta) is often very beautifully 

 coloured with blotches of dark brown and pale green, 

 and a pale yellow stripe down the back. It is easily 

 distinguished from the brown frog (Rana temporaria), 

 which occurs with it. The latter is the common frog 

 of our islands, though we also find the edible frog in 



