OF OUR ENTHUSIASM FOR "ALPINES" 5 



regarded with Ihoughtful respect and intelligent 

 wonder, but will be obliged to retire into the 

 oblivion whicli so niucli surrounds those things 

 immediately and continuously under our noses. 

 For, of all plants, they merit to be of our abiding 

 treasures. 



But just because we have come to the opinion 

 that Alpines stand in need of less " bush," it does 

 not necessarily follow that we must be sparing 

 of our attention. There is ample occasion for an 

 extension of honest, balanced intimacy. What we 

 have to fear is an irrational freak-enthusiasm 

 similar to the seventeenth-century craze for Tulips 

 — a craze of which La Bruycre so trenchantly 

 speaks in referring to an acquaintance who was 

 swept off his feet by the monstrous prevailing 

 wave. " God and Nature," he says, " are not 

 in his thoughts, for they do not go beyond the 

 bulb of his tulip, which he would not sell for a 

 thousand pounds, though he will give it you for 

 nothing when tulips are no longer in fashion, 

 and carnations are all the rage. This rational 

 being, who has a soul and professes some religion, 

 comes home tired and half starved, but very 

 pleased with his day's work. He has seen some 

 tulips." Now this was enthusiasm of a degree 



