CHARACTERISTICS OF ALPINE PLANTS (jl 



a summer of feverish haste, of alternate frost and 

 burning sunshine, of storm and drought these 

 are their 'home comforts,' satisfying and indis- 

 pensable, as real a set of comforts as any we our- 

 selves possess down in the plains. Do we think 

 to know better, and to urge upon these happy 

 Alpines some of our ideas of happiness and com- 

 fort, we only end in making them miserable, and 

 in showing once again our traditional and egregious 

 conceit. 



Almost anywhere in the Alps at an altitude of 

 between 3,000 and 5,000 feet we may meet with 

 striking illustrations of the Alpines' dislike and 

 dread of civilized * comforts.' Almost anywhere 

 at this altitude we may find pastures dressed 

 annually with manure by the peasants, running 

 side by side with others that are untouched in this 

 regard and are used the season round as grazing- 

 ground for the cows. Perhaps a rough wall of 

 stones, or one of the rustic Alpine fences, will 

 separate the two pastures ; but such boundaries 

 are not necessary, except to keep the cattle from 

 the pasture dressed for producing hay, for the line 

 of demarcation is most distinctly marked by the 

 vegetation. The dressed enclosure is positively 

 rank in its growth compared with the close-cropped 



