PREFACE ix 



Gemmi and on the Oberalp in the Grisons ; I 

 have seen the flowering spring in the Bernese 

 Oberland and on the UtU (Zurich), in the vallons 

 of Savoie and in those of Dauphine ; I have seen 

 the metamorphosis of the Val de Bagnes and of 

 the Bavarian plain, the transformation of the 

 marvellous valleys of Piemont and of the elevated 

 valley of Aosta. But I have never seen anything 

 more beautiful or more solemn than spring in the 

 Jura Mountains of Vaud and Neuchatel, with their 

 fields of Anemone alpina and narcissiflora, when 

 immense areas disappeared under a deep azure 

 veil of Gentiana verna or of the darker Gentiana 

 Clusii, and when the landscape is animated by 

 myriads of T'^iola hiflora or of Soldanella. In 

 reading what Mr. Flemwell has written, my spirit 

 floats further afield even than this — to the Val 

 del Faene, which reposes near to the Bernina, 

 and I see over again a picture that no painter, 

 not even our author, could render : the snow, 

 in retiring to the heights, gave place to a carpet 

 of violet, blue, lilac, yellow, or bright pink, 

 according as it was composed of either Soldanella 

 pusilla, of long, narrow, pendent bells, which 



