EARLY SPRING AT VEVEY 157 



du Midi. On the steep banks of loose debris which the 

 winter's frost had flaked off the grey rocks bright-eyed 

 lizards were darting about ; several tortoise-shell and 

 brimstone butterflies were on the wing ; and the yellow 

 coltsfoot was just coming into flower on the wayside. 

 Passing a woodman busy in barking a fallen tree, I re- 

 marked on the beauty of the morning. " Oui, mon- 

 sieur," he replied. " Le printemps s'annonce." The 

 woodman was right. The top of the Pleiades was still 

 covered with deep snow, but just below the snow-line 

 several tiny gentians were opening their exquisite ultra- 

 marine petals to the sun. Descending the mountain, I 

 found on a warm, sheltered bank the first blue S cilia (S. 

 italicd) of the season, and in the Blonay orchards a few 

 white crocuses (C. albiflorus, Kit.) were showing under 

 the apple-trees. Spring had indeed declared itself. 



From this moment the evidences of spring became 

 more pronounced every day. By the end of the first 

 week in March wild flowers were plentiful. It was 

 pleasant to come across familiar English species 

 blossoming in abundance on the hill-sides. The 

 common coltsfoot made a brave show in long belts of 

 golden flowers beside the mountain paths. The banks 

 were bright with Wordsworth's little celandine, with 

 primroses, with blue and white violets. On the loose 

 stone walls the blue veronica was plentiful, and the 

 attractive little Draba verna, L., and the maidenhair 

 spleenwort fern. In the vineyards, which clothe the 

 hill-sides above the lake, the ground in places was 

 covered with the common chickweed, the garden spurge 

 and the purple dead-nettle. But pleasanter still was 

 it to come across some of our choicer English species, in 

 comparative abundance. I have already mentioned 



