THE ABUSE AND PROTECTION OF ALPINES 117 



its ways, may be an art which ' doth mend Nature/ 

 but it is hard to believe that one of these ways is 

 in meddling with the Alpine flora in its splendid, 

 perfect home ; even the ' universal mind ' of 

 Shakespeare could scarcely have had the Alps and 

 their flowers in view when he spoke as he did of 

 gardening ! 



But what at first sight seems such an anomaly 

 is, in point of fact, a most pertinent and important 

 undertaking. For although 



' Les Alpes nous gardent encore 



Sur quelques sommets preserves, 

 Des jardins que le monde ignore 

 Et que Dieu seul a cultives ' 



although Nature's own gardens abound in the Alps, 

 this was not enough. Man, with his blind eye turned 

 towards to-morrow, had for long been exercising 

 his sweet, unfettered will, working sad havoc 

 amongst the Alpine vegetation. Some means had 

 to be devised to save him from himself, to correct 

 or circumvent his wrong-headedness, to give some 

 sight to his blind eye, and so to stave off as far as 

 possible any further and final designs he might 

 have upon the remnants of those varieties he had 

 so nearly exterminated. Something had to be 

 done, too, to try and counteract the designs which 



