SOME WAYS AND MEANS 163 



gardening books. To this end, then, I would try 

 to conjure up a representative field or meadow of 

 the Alps. But, before doing so, let me impress 

 upon the reader that, not only will it be no Alpine 

 field in the popular sense, but that we may 

 occasionally have to descend even to the fields of 

 the Swiss plain in order to find one or two subjects 

 which we can use with advantage to enrich our 

 scheme — plants such as the Star of Bethlehem and 

 Scilla bifolia. The Swiss plains lie high when 

 judged by English standards ; rarely, if ever, do 

 they fall below some 1,200 feet. 



The field I have in my mind's eye as I write 

 these lines is one which, " with its early and 

 exquisite diversities of form and colour" — to quote 

 again from Dean Hole's little book — " is a new 

 and large delight." It is one in which the bulbs, 

 hundreds upon hundreds in number and about five 

 in kind, burst into life with the grass in the first 

 days of spring. White and purple Crocus vernus, 

 rosy Crocus-like Bulbocodium vernum, and yellow 

 (^agea are the first-comers, quickly followed by the 

 golden Daffodil {Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus)^ the 

 bright blue Scilla bifolia, the green-and-white Star 

 of Bethlehem {Oimithogcdum umbellatum) and its 



