CHAPTER II 



ALPINE FI.OWER-FTET-DS 



" If you go to the open lielrt, you shall always he in contact directly 

 with the Nature. You hear how sweetly those innocent birds are 

 singing. You see how beautifully those meadow-flowers are blossom- 

 ing. . . . Everything you are observing there is pure and sacred. 

 And you yourselves are unconsciously converted into purity by the 

 Nature." — Y'oshio MARKit^o, My Jdeakd John BuUess. 



Alpine Fi>ower-fields ; it is well that we should 

 at once come to some understanding as to the 

 term "Alpine" and what it is here intended to 

 convey, otherwise it will be open to misinterpre- 

 tation. Purists in the use of words will be nearer 

 to our present meaning than they who have in 

 mind the modern and general acceptation of the 

 words " Alp " and " Alpine." The authority of 

 custom has confirmed these words in what, really, 

 is faulty usage. " Alp " really means a mountain 

 pasturage, and its original use, traceable for more 

 than a thousand years, relates to any part of a 

 mountain where the cattle can graze. It does 



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