158 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



Will any one deny that a plant which, in a wild, 

 free state, invariably chooses to dwell upon the 

 meadows is not more at home there than when 

 robbed of such pressing, self-sought company ? 

 Will any one deny that, for instance. Campanula 

 rhomhoidalis, Paradisia L,iliastrum, Salvia pratensis. 

 Narcissus poeticus, Veratrum album, or Phyteuma 

 betonicifolium are not infinitely happier when grow- 

 ing together in close company with grasses than 

 when standing in select isolation upon the rockery 

 or the garden-border ? 



Possibly it will be argued that these field -plants 

 show themselves so much better on the border or 

 the rockwork. But do they ? Does Colchicum, 

 for example, look better against the brown earth of 

 a border than upon a thick-set carpet of green ? 

 Does Veronica spicata ever look better than when 

 seen upon the fields of the Alps ? Is it possible 

 that the Meadow-Orchids are not at their best 

 among the grasses ? For my own part, I find 

 many of these plants look thin and lonesome when 

 carefully set apart " to do themselves full justice." 

 In nature they are items in a rich reciprocal 

 scheme of intimacy, and in this assuredly is their 

 truest happiness ; therefore, as part of this scheme 

 they must certainly be seen at their best. Snatched 



