THE JUNE MEADOWS 69 



possibly intensify its hue over and above what 

 we know it can achieve in the cornfields of the 

 plains, will seem incredible — another instance of 

 whale-talk on the writer's part ! And yet such 

 is certainly the case — as, indeed, it is the case 

 with many another lowland flower whose powers 

 will allow it to climb. These poppies, here on 

 this slope, stood witness for the fact ; and so, 

 too, did the other lowland flowers growing with 

 them. There were Cornflowers and Larkspur of 

 a blue more rich and radiant than it is even in 

 the plains ; and Viola tricolor ^ too, the Pansy 

 of our own cornfields, was of a purple and yellow 

 more deep than we are accustomed to have it. 

 There was, also, the exquisite Adonis aestivalis 

 of most vivid salmon-orange — its dainty blossoms 

 standing like fire-flies against the rich blue masses 

 of Salvia pratetisis. 



Yet this was not a corn-patch (one can scarcely 

 call them corn-fields at this altitude, where they 

 are mere terraces, many of them, like potato- 

 patches, standing almost at an angle of 45°, carved 

 from out the steep mountain-side by generations 

 of thrifty peasants). In all probability, however, 

 this particular terrace with its wealth of corn- 

 field flowers had in quite recent years been sown 



