ALPINE FRUITS AND BERRIES 11 



But, exceptional as was the weather last summer, in any season 

 towards the end of July, when the crowds are at their height, the 

 Alpine berries begin to show themselves, and we realise that ' spring/ 

 even in the Alpine sense, has gone. At best the Alpine summer is 

 not a long one, and in the short space of about three months much 

 has to be gone through the face of Nature is continually and 

 rapidly changing, and many plants have to develop, blossom, and 

 ripen their seeds in quite a brief period of time. 



It was thought that a short chapter on some of the Alpine berries 

 and fruits might be of interest to some of the vast multitudes of 

 late visitors to Switzerland, who may be attracted by the abundance 

 of the crop, but who are not, perhaps, in every case familiar with 

 earlier stages of the plants ; or in other cases they may know the 

 flowering stage well enough but fail to recognise the fruit which 

 follows it. 



The Bilberry or Whortleberry (V actinium Myrtilus), which often 

 grows finer in the Alps, and particularly in the Chamonix valley, 

 than at home, was losing its flavour by mid-September last year, 

 when its leaves were turning a brilliant crimson so that mountain 

 sides seemed ablaze with them. But wild Raspberries were even 

 at that late date in the best of condition at about 6000 feet, and as 

 delicately flavoured as any in gardens. The Wild Strawberry also 

 lingered on until plants in some of the higher regions must have 

 been embedded in the first September snows. That year in the 

 Mont Blanc district the first cold spell came about I5th September, 

 but by ist October the weather was extremely cold and wet, and 

 snow covered the mountains to within a thousand feet of Geneva. 



But to return to the Bilberry, whose fruit begins to ripen in 

 sub-alpine regions usually about mid- July, it is interesting to note 

 that not infrequently on the older rocks it is rarely seen on 

 limestone this common plant ascends to 9000 feet in the Maritime 

 Alps, as, for example, on Monte Santa Maria, and it may sometimes 

 be found as high in Savoy and in the Southern Swiss Alps. The 

 Bog Whortleberry (V actinium uliginosum) ascends even higher in 

 Alpine turbaries in Switzerland, where it has been recorded from 

 3000 metres, or nearly 10,000 feet. Its leaves are bluish green or 

 glaucous on the under side, and always entire (not slightly toothed), 

 and its berries resemble those of the Common Bilberry, but are 

 insipid to the taste, and often rather smaller. 



The Cowberry (V actinium Vitis idcea] is very beautiful in both 

 flower and fruit. It is a low shrub, sometimes not six inches in 

 height, with wax-like, flesh-coloured blossoms, evergreen leaves, 

 often turning red in autumn, and brilliant scarlet berries which are 

 very attractive. It grows abundantly in Alpine woods and on 

 moors or on beds of mould about rocks from the plains up to 10,000 

 feet in Switzerland. The Cranberry, of still the same genus (V. 

 oxy coccus), grows only in sphagnum bogs, as in Britain, but its 



