SOME GARDENS IN THE ALPS 161 



How is it, by the way, that more attempts are 

 not made in England to create Alpine pastures ? 

 Alpine rock-works we have in hundreds, but a 

 stretch of meadow -land sown or planted with 

 Alpine field-flowers seems as yet to be but rarely 

 attempted. And yet, commencing with the bulbs 

 and ending with the hay-flowers, what could be 

 more interesting or seductive ? Innumerable 

 variety crammed into one small spot is not the 

 secret of Nature's wild, unfettered loveliness. 



A little way up the Valsorey, not far from the 

 Sempervivum-decked roofs of Bourg St. Pierre, 

 are some gentle, grassy slopes and long, low ridges 

 of crumbling rock whose floral robe in July and 

 August baffles description far more completely 

 than anything to be seen in the gorgeous garden 

 near by. Pinks, Campanulas, Phyteumas, Asters, 

 Saxifrages, Arenarias and Veronicas are there 

 growing in bewildering abundance, and yet with a 

 grace and airy-lightness which is far more moving 

 and far more difficult to translate than are the 

 compact and studied masses in the garden. Though 

 the beauty of this latter may well exhaust our fund 

 of superlatives, these untamed slopes outside make 

 an even higher, more elusive appeal. It is well to 

 wander from the garden to these rocks and pastures, 



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