CHAPTER IX 



ON THE ABUSE AND PROTECTION OF ALPINES 



HEARING for the first time that there are gardens 

 in the Alps, our irresistible impulse is to exclaim, 

 * Of course there are ! the Alps are one vast and 

 glorious garden F And when at length we fully 

 realize what is meant : that artificial gardens really 

 do exist in the Alps gardens, too, for Alpine 

 plants we feel the immediate appropriateness of 

 crying, ' Coals to Newcastle !' Alpine gardens in 

 the plains are understandable, explicable, delightful, 

 filling a void and supplying a want ; but Alpine 

 gardens in the Alps themselves ! wherein is their 

 rhyme and reason ? Why should Man ape Nature 

 when and where she is so ample, so supreme ? Is 

 it not idle, is it not even impertinent, for him to 

 thrust his ' spurious imitations ' into the very home 

 and kingdom of what he presumes to imitate ? Is 

 it not what Thoreau would have called another 

 egregious attempt on Man's part c to plant his 

 hoof among the stars ' ? Gardening, in some of 



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