168 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



field must be mown ; that the ripening growth 

 cannot be allowed " to lie in cold obstruction and 

 to rot " ; that, from July to the end of the year, 

 the field will be a stubbly place of emptiness, 

 whereas our rockwork will bear a continual round 

 of interest until the coming of the frost. And 

 this complaint would be reasonable if we were 

 dealing with just an English meadow set with 

 certain Alpine plants to make it gayer than is its 

 habit. But we are not — not, that is to say, if we 

 are contemplating the meadow as a companioning 

 feature of our rock-garden. A typical Alpine 

 meadow is full of " accident " ; there is nothing of 

 the billiard-table about its eventful surface. Palp- 

 ably, it must have been the scene of utmost violence 

 before Nature decked it out with verdure. Steep 

 depressions ; wide gullies ; abrupt limits, falling 

 suddenly away in a grassless, rocky bank to a 

 rough path below, — such " accidents " as these 

 break its even tenor. Rocks, grey and lichen- 

 flecked, crop up from it here and there — rocks 

 hurled in some past fury from the heights above 

 or borne from afar upon the breast of some ancient 

 glacier ; for an Alpine field, more often than not, 

 is a delightful combination of rockwork and pas- 

 ture. Hence there is accommodation for a much 



