ALPINE FIELDS FOR ENGLAND 161 



the clean, invigorating air which goes so far to 

 form the joy exhaled of Alpine meadows ; if we 

 may not lay on the wonderful atmosphere of the 

 Alps as we may the ozone from the seaside, — we 

 can at least take the flowers, those brilliant children 

 of the Alpine ether, and thus help materially 

 towards mountain purity in our parks and gardens. 

 Some of the gaiety might be lost in the process — 

 some of that intensity of colouring which steals 

 over the very grass as it climbs the mountain-side 

 and encroaches upon the kingdom of the Rhodo- 

 dendron. Astrantia majoi' might lose its rosy- 

 magenta blush and assume a more or less livid 

 green- white ; Lychnis, Geranium, and Salvia might 

 lack something of their Alpine lustre ; a certain 

 mildness might reign generally in the place of 

 mountain briskness ; but, on the whole, the loss 

 to the flowers would be small and the gain to the 

 garden or the landscape immense, and we should 

 find that we had annexed much of the charm and 

 joy of Alpine days — 



" Days lit with the flame of the lamps of the flowers." 



11 



