54 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



many a piece of living branch, and whirling them 

 aloft. Under a glorious sky and amid the solitude 

 and stillness of the Alps, such violence is at least 

 uncanny, if not a little unnerving. One is moved 

 to turn in admiration to the ever-smiling Alpines 

 and ejaculate : 



" Brave flowers — that I could gallant it like you, 

 And be as little vain ! " 



With this as a sample — and a by no means 

 uncommon sample — of what they have to with- 

 stand, small wonder that so many of these plants 

 have endowed themselves with such a deep, 

 tenacious grip upon their home ! Try with your 

 trowel to dig up an entire root of, for instance, 

 the Alpine Clover {Trifolium alpinum), or the 

 Sulphur Anemone, or the Bearded Campanula, 

 or the tall blue Rampion {Phyteuma betonicifolium), 

 or even so diminutive a plant as Sibbaldia pro- 

 cumbens, or of so modest a one as Plant ago alpina, 

 and you vrill be astounded at the depth to which 

 you must delve. You will find it the same with a 

 hundred other subjects ; and, unless you be digging 

 in some loose and gritty soil, most probably your 

 amazement will end in despair, and in destruction 

 to the plant. More likely than not, you will hack 



