THE VERNAL GENTIAN 45 



the district will attest, it is difficult to draw a rigid, 

 formal line where flowers and mountains are so 

 knit in common semblance. Other rich scenes of 

 azure I can recall — as on the swelling slopes of the 

 Jura around the Suchet, or on the fields which 

 mount from Naters towards Bel- Alp ; but none 

 forces itself to mind with such persistence as does 

 this slope at Le Planet. And it is because the 

 surrounding circumstance illustrates so well all 

 that I have been saying about this Gentian's 

 presence in the spring. 



The slope in question is not five minutes' stroll 

 from the hotel. On the plateau itself ve7^na is all 

 but absent, but on this broad and steep incline it 

 congregates in such amazing numbers that, as I 

 think on it, I am sure all I have said of this 

 witching flower is poor and paltry. After all, 

 verbal magniloquence is perhaps out of place, and 

 simplicity is the best translator of such magnifi- 

 cence. All shades of brightest blue are here 

 presented ; for, excepting a few pale plum-coloured 

 clusters, the brilliant type-flower is ubiquitous, 

 blending delightfully with the little yellow Violet 

 and with the white, fluffy seedheads of the 

 Coltsfoot. 



But what, perhaps, makes this particular slope 



