124 



ALPINE FLOWERS 



[PART I. 



Soon we reached the meadow-land towards the bottom of 

 the warm valley, and found this Piedmontese meadow almost 

 blue with Forget-me-nots and strange Harebells, enlivened 

 by Orchids, and jewelled here and there with St Bruno's Lily. 

 The flower is nearly 2 inches long, of as pure a white as the 

 snows on the top of Monte Rosa, each petal having a small 

 green tip, like the spring Snowflake, but purer, and golden 

 stamens. The pleasure of finding so many beautiful plants, 

 rare in cultivation, growing in the long grass under conditions 

 very similar to those enjoyed in our meadows, was greater than 

 that of meeting with the more diminutive forms on the high 

 Alp, verifying, as they did, the conviction that no flowers grow 

 in those mountain meadows that cannot be grown equally well 

 in the rough grassy parts of many British pleasure-grounds 

 and copses. 



Alpine Larch-wood. 



Coming over the pass of Monte Moro, Primula viscosa was 

 in perfect condition and full bloom, and yet so small that a 

 shilling would cover the entire plant, while in lower spots on 



