SOME WAYS AND MEANS 175 



Viola alpina, Gentiana verna, or the Soldanella 

 into the field. Moreover, there are grasses and 

 grasses ; and I beUeve a very suitable selection 

 could be made from any of the leading seed- 

 merchants. I should suggest that the ground be 

 sown with smaller, daintier grasses, and only after 

 the flowering-plants have become more or less 

 established ; and I imagine that if this were done — 

 and a sharp eye kept for the ever-ready invasion 

 by native weeds — the imported field-flowers would 

 hold their own. 



An interesting fact in connection with Alpine 

 fields — one that should not be copied in England — 

 is the tendency of what is usually shade-loving 

 vegetation to creep out into the sunlight. In spite 

 of the intensity and power of the sun's rays, even 

 certain ferns, such as Aspidium Lonchitis, the 

 Holly-fern, and Polystichum Filix-mas, seem to 

 think nothing of basking upon the hottest slopes. 

 True, their roots are generally sheltered by rock 

 and stone, but the fronds look the sun squarely 

 in the face ; and yet, what can possibly be fresher 

 and more engaging than, for instance, the masses 

 of Parsley-fern to be met with in the stony places 

 of the granitic Alps ? Wood-Sorrel, too, will come 

 out into the open ; so will the little Alpine London 



