THE EDELWEISS 17 



driest and barest rocks, barren of other plants ; and 

 since such localities are relatively infrequent, the 

 Edelweiss is a local plant, though often exceedingly 

 abundant where it does occur. On the other hand, 

 in places where the circumstances that prevail appear 

 to be in every way adapted to its needs, the Edelweiss 

 is often conspicuous by its absence. 



Thus the sentimental value of the Edelweiss does 

 not really depend so much on its rarity or difficulty of 

 collection, as on the fact that the localities in which 

 it grows are comparatively few and far between. It 

 is one of the most local of Alpine flowers, a fact in 

 itself of great botanical interest. 



The Edelweiss is not a British plant, and the name, 

 though by now almost completely anglicised, is a 

 combination of two German words : edel = precious 

 and weiss = white. 1 So we see that romance is bound 

 up in the very name itself. 



Let us now examine the features of this plant 

 which give rise to the idea of whiteness. If we study 

 a specimen with a hand-lens, we shall find it is covered, 

 completely and thickly, with long, woolly hairs. 

 These hairs consist of empty cells. It is one of the 

 properties of light, that when it falls on innumer- 

 able, minute, transparent particles, we receive the 

 impression which we term white. A good and well- 

 known example is the foam of waves breaking on 

 the sea-shore. Water itself is colourless, but when 

 it is broken up into small particles or bubbles, as 



1 Cf. the German Edelstein= precious stone. 



B 



