50 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



Be that as it may ; be fog, wind, and cloud and 

 driving rain and sleet a luxury in which we should 

 revel — or not; of all places in the world in bad 

 weather, the Alps at springtide and at the altitude 

 at which we are now studying them, are probably 

 among the most interesting and absorbing. Let 

 an everyday world, or as much of it as can, come 

 and judge for itself. 



If in our composition we have a grain of love 

 for Nature and for Nature-study, there is a fund 

 of opportunity for exercising it even in cloudland 

 at its gloomiest ; and if, as in the present case, we 

 are bent upon studying the flowers and the means 

 for their more adequate reception into our English 

 homelands, then bad weather holds for us an 

 amount of experience such as will aid us materially 

 in our object. " Inclemency " takes so large a share 

 in the nurture of these flowers. By company ing 

 with them when steeped in cloud and swept by 

 wind, we catch an important glimpse of the grim 

 and forceful side of their existence which is a 

 prime cause of the superlative loveliness that so 

 impresses us when the sun does shine from out an 

 immaculate azure. 



Just as the cheese-mite is a product of the cheese, 

 and has attained its beauty and efficiency because 



