76 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



though it follow an easier gradient ; for, by ascend- 

 ing direct, we shall see more of the flowers. We 

 have now left the zone of Rhododendron, and have 

 gone one good step nearer the elite of Alpine things. 

 Here, nestling in the close turf, is the little mauve- 

 flowered Gentiana tenella, growing with that other 

 annual Gentian, the exquisite little bright blue 

 G. nivalis, together with a few plants of its far 

 more local mauve form, said by some to be a distinct 

 variety. And here is a plant of its white form 

 growing close to this colony of G. campestris. 

 Here, also, is the white Alpine Butterwort, or 

 Catchfly (Pinguicula alpind), a member of the 

 vegetation which is far from being a vegetarian! 

 And here, in the hollow, by this patch of melting 

 snow, is the frail little Snowbell (Soldanella pusilla), 

 much smaller than our old friend S. alpina, though 

 bearing an unmistakable likeness to its more 

 ubiquitous relative. And here is yet another link 

 with England and some of the copses of Essex 

 and Cambridgeshire Primula elatior, the Oxlip ! 

 Really, the invasion of the Swiss Alps by the 

 British seems not to be confined to any one 

 creation ! What with the Stinging-Nettle, the 

 Yellow Colt's-foot, the ' sweet satyrian/ the Oxlip, 

 and that Cabbage- White Butterfly fluttering up the 



