2 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



England/ ' there is a love of flowers fast knit into 

 the very fibre of our British nature/ Rocks and 

 crags radiant with gem-like florets must exercise 

 a fascination far more universal than when brown 

 and bare a fascination which must reach even 

 most climbers climbing for mere climbing's sake. 

 The Matterhorn or the Jungfrau, set amid a glory 

 of Rhododendron and Gentian, must ever have more 

 constant admirers than when wrapped about with 

 snow. Slopes dyed richly with red and blue and 

 gold must ever make wider appeal than when 

 draped merely in white. For white, in human 

 economy, is a luxury a wholesome condition for 

 a select season. It soon has palled upon the 

 imagination ; it soon has served its useful purpose 

 of duly stimulating appreciation for an estate more 

 sentient, more colourfull, and yes, more vital. 



'The winter Alps are melancholy,' says Leslie 

 Stephen in ' The Playground of Europe,' ' as- 

 everything sublime is more or less melancholy ;* 

 and it is just this melancholy ' this living death, 

 or cataleptic trance of the mountains ' which, 

 fascinating though it be for awhile, soon palls. 

 Or, at any rate, its effect is this upon the generality 

 of mankind. The generality of mankind are not 

 Leslie Stephens. The generality of mankind, I 



