PREFACE 



I^AST year Mr. G. Flemwell gave us a very 

 beautiful volume upon the Alpine Flora, and it 

 has met with well-deserved success. But the 

 author is not yet satisfied. He thinks to do 

 better, and would now make known other pictures 

 — those of Alpine fields, especially during the 

 spring months. 



Springtime in our Alps is certainly the most 

 beautiful moment of the year, and the months 

 of May and June, even to the middle of July, 

 are the most brilliant of all. It is a season which, 

 up to the present, we have rather considered as 

 reserved for us Swiss, who do not much like that 

 which is somewhat irreverently called lindustrie 

 des etrangers, and perhaps we shall not be alto- 

 gether enchanted to find that the author a la mode 

 is about to draw the \q\\ from our secrets, open 

 the lock-gates of our most sacred joys to the 



