SOME SPRING AND SUMMER ALPINES 91 



binoculars, a peasant gathering Edelweiss on the 

 hot, precipitous cliffs of the Dent de Morcles. He 

 had been there, I was told, since early morning, 

 worming his way along the narrow ledges, his only 

 hold being some tuft of grass or crevice in the rock. 

 He looked like a fly on a wall, and it was preposterous 

 to think that he should be thus risking his life for 

 the few pence which these flowers would bring him 

 from the visitors at the hotel. Yet so it was. 

 Towards evening he arrived, a worn but sturdy 

 montagnard, quite oblivious of having accomplished 

 anything which could be considered unusual, and 

 glad to sell for a matter of fifteen pence all that 

 might easily have cost him so much more dear. 

 And only across the valley, on the sides of the 

 Dent du Midi, I could have taken him to a spot 

 where he might have gathered thrice the quantity 

 in half an hour, and at no personal risk what- 

 ever. His exploit, however, went far to confirm 

 and swell the popular romance surrounding this 

 Alpine. 



Known sometimes as Silverstar, and in French 

 as Belle Etoile, or Etoile d? Argent, Leontopodium 

 alpinum, the far-famed Edelweiss, is by no means rare. 

 Nor is it distinctive of the Swiss Alps. Although 

 absent in the Arctic regions, it is common in Siberia, 



