ALPINE FLOWER-FIELDS 15 



and brightest. Therefore, because there is much 

 that is Alpine in sub-Alpine vegetation (just as 

 there is much that is sub- Alpine in Alpine vege- 

 tation) we must, at any rate for the purposes of 

 this volume, adhere to the etymology of the word 

 " Alpine," and give the name without a murmur 

 to the middle and lower mountain-fields, in pre- 

 cisely the same spirit in which we give the name 

 to our mixed rockworks in England. 



No need for us to travel higher than from 

 4,000 to 5,000 feet (and we may reasonably de- 

 scend to some 3,000 or 2,500 feet). No need 

 whatever to scramble to the high summer pastures 

 on peak and col (0,000 to 7,000 feet), where 

 abound " Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal 

 frost " ; where, around a pile of stones or signal, 

 solitary Swallow-tail butterflies love to disport 

 themselves ; where the sturdy cowherd invokes in 

 song his patron-saint, St. Wendelin ; and where 

 the pensive cattle browse and chew the cud for 

 a brief and ideal spell. No need to seek, for 

 instance, the rapid pastures around the summit of 

 Mount Cray, or on the steep col between the 

 Gummfluh and the liubly, if we are at Chateau 

 d'Oex ; or to toil to the Col de Balme or to the 

 '^ look-out " on the Arpille, if we are at the Col 



