SPRING IN THE ALPS 25 



the very windows of the hotel (the proprietor of 

 which, by the way, once had the honour of carrying 

 Queen Alexandra, then Princess of Wales, across 

 freshly-fallen snow on the Col de Balme) one can 

 look out upon slopes teeming with the large sulphur- 

 yellow Anemone (Anemone sulfur -ea) 9 here growing 

 in such manner as to give strength to the doubts ex- 

 pressed in some quarters as to whether this Anemone 

 is really a separate species, or only a granitic form 

 of A. Alpina ; for on these slopes are some w T hite- 

 flowered forms as well as many which are but 

 slightly suffused with yellow, and the backs of the 

 sepals have some of the blue tinge which is charac- 

 teristic of alpina. On these slopes, too, if one 

 strolls out, as one may, after breakfast, will be 

 found quantities of Gentiana Kochiana and verna ; 

 also the blue, white, and pink Hepatica, on the 

 fringe of the forest which crowns the slopes ; also 

 the Box-leaved Milkwort (Polygala Cliamocbuxus) 

 and its little blue relative, P, alpestris ; also the 

 deep, rich blue Veronica saxatilis, the graceful 

 Thesium alpinum, the golden Genista sagittalis 

 and Hippocrepis comosa, the curious Moon wort 

 (Sotryckium lunaria), the Mountain Cudweed 

 (Antennaria dioica), and many another gem 

 growing amongst bushes of the Alpine Rose not 



4 



