72 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



misses, also, the bright white presence of Micheli's 

 Daisy; and the Vernal Gentian, "blue with the 

 beauty of windless skies," though still lingering 

 here and there, is, for the most part, hidden by 

 the Grasses and the Clovers. 



Ah ! yes, the Clovers — pink, rose-red, crimson, 

 cream, white, yellow ; we must not forget these I 

 Of goodly and varied company, they are such im- 

 portant units in the rich composition of most 

 Alpine meadows, and, where they grow, they form 

 so compact a groundwork of colouring and so 

 admirable a setting for many of the taller flowers, 

 that it were, indeed, a dereliction of memory to 

 overlook them ! What could be lovelier than a 

 wide area of these Clovers in June sown with lilac, 

 rose-tinted, and white Orchids, deep, lustrous-blue 

 Phyteumas, paper-white Paradise Lilies, and in- 

 finite hosts of the bright and fascinating little 

 Euphrasia ? Or in July, when the orange Arnica, 

 the porcelain-blue Campanula barbata, and the 

 graceful, distinguished-looking little Thesium al- 

 pinum make their ever-welcome appearance in the 

 fields? Of course, there are degrees even in 

 natural felicity, and the Orchids — with the excep- 

 tion of the creamy-white Butterfly Orchis — are 

 not at their best if the predominant Clover be 



