8^ FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



are these pasture-slopes and meadows of Lac 

 Champex ? In some one or other respect their 

 equal may be found in many favoured places ; 

 in many spots we shall find most astonishing 

 displays of other kinds of plants than we have 

 here — of, for instance, the white Anemone alpina 

 and the purple Viola calcarata, as on the slopes of 

 the Chamossaire above Villars-sur-Ollon (though 

 the Viola is in quantity near Champex, in the 

 Val d'Arpette, in June), or of the Pheasant-eye 

 Narcissus, as at Les Avants and Chateau d'Oex, 

 and the Daffodil, as at Champery and Saas ; but, 

 taking Champex's floral wealth as a whole, it 

 can have few, if any superiors in point of 

 abundance and colour at this early season. 

 Mindful of what Mr. Reginald Farrer has said 

 of Mont Cenis towards the end of June, we may 

 safely declare that tlie Viola and Gentian clothed 

 slopes of that district are not the only slopes in 

 the Alps which might be " visible for miles away." 

 Perhaps some more substantial idea of these 

 fields at this season may be gathered from the 

 pictures facing pages iii and 3 ; but these tran- 

 scriptions, though to the uninitiated they may 

 appear reckless with regard to truth, are really 

 far from adequate. Seeing the thing itself must. 



