THE VERNAL GENTIAN 45 



the district will attest, it is difficult to draw a rigid, 

 formal line where flowers and mountains are so 

 knit in common semblance. Other rich scenes of 

 azure I can recall — as on the swelling slopes of the 

 Jura around the Suchet, or on the fields which 

 mount from Naters towards Bel- Alp ; but none 

 forces itself to mind with such persistence as does 

 this slope at Le Planet. And it is because the 

 surrounding circumstance illustrates so well all 

 that I have been saying about this Gentian's 

 presence in the spring. 



The slope in question is not five minutes' stroll 

 from the hotel. On the plateau itself verna is all 

 but absent, but on this broad and steep incline it 

 congregates in such amazing numbers that, as I 

 think on it, I am sure all I have said of this 

 witching flower is poor and paltry. After all, 

 verbal magniloquence is perhaps out of place, and 

 simplicity is the best translator of such magnifi- 

 cence. All shades of brightest blue are here 

 presented ; for, excepting a few pale plum-coloured 

 clusters, the brilliant type-flower is ubiquitous, 

 blending delightfully with the little yellow Violet 

 and with the white, fluffy seedheads of the 

 Coltsfoot. 



But what, perhaps, makes this particular slope 



