An Ascent of Mont Ventotix 213 



enormous bank of clouds, a sort of ocean of 

 cotton-wool, whence peeped, like islands of 

 slag, the dark summits of the lower mountains. 

 A few tops, with their trailing glaciers, gleamed 

 in the direction of the Alps. 



But botany called our attention and we 

 had to tear ourselves from this magic spectacle. 

 The time of our ascent, in August, was a little 

 late in the year ; many plants were no longer 

 in flower. Would you do some really fruitful 

 herborizing ? Be there in the first fortnight of 

 July ; above all, be ahead of the grazing herds : 

 where the Sheep has browsed you will gather 

 none but wretched leavings. While still spared 

 by the hungry flocks, the top of the Ventoux 

 in July is a literal bed of flowers ; its loose 

 stony surface is studded with them. My 

 memory recalls, all streaming with the morning 

 dew, those elegant tufts of Androsace villosa, 

 with its pink-centred white blooms ; the Mont- 

 Cenis violet, spreading its great blue blossoms 

 over the chips of limestone ; the spikenard 

 valerian, which blends the sweet perfume of its 

 flowers with the offensive odour of its roots ; the 

 wedge-leaved globularia, forming close carpets 

 of bright green dotted with blue capitula ; the 

 Alpine forget-me-not, whose blue rivals that 

 of the skies ; the Candolla candytuft, whose 

 tiny stalk bears a dense head of little white 



