38 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



Or if ours are coloured with flowers it is usually by some 

 one or two plants, as by buttercups and daisies, flowers 

 which are lost as the grass grows long. But there the 

 grass is lost in the flowers, and of these the variety and 

 colouring is a sight to behold. Blue and yellow are 

 the prevailing colours, but purples and crimsons mingle 

 with them, and in the rich medley of bright colours, 

 the white of Narcissus and of Lily is all the more 

 apparent. One and all are revelling in the sunshine, 

 and from their midst the grasshopper sends forth his 

 note which never flags till the sun has set. 



A week ago we were full of excitement as we gathered 

 the blue Sage for the first time, or saw to what dimen- 

 sions the Rampion of the South Downs here attains. 

 Then there was the Bistort of our English meadows, 

 but looking plumper and more fair ; the Columbine at 

 times dark purple as well as blue ; Goats' beard thrice 

 the size of our common Tragopogon, together with the 

 big yellow globes of the TrolHus, the deep purple spikes 

 of the Bell-flower, bluest of blue Forget-me-nots, and 

 varying shades of purple of the Geranium. 



Knap- weeds, with large purple rays, and mauve heads 

 of Scabious called to mind chalk banks in Surrey, and 

 the masses of orange Anthyllis and of bright yellow 

 Hippocrepis, the luxuriant pastures of Kent. We 

 have most of these to-day, for they are the common 

 meadow flowers. But Swiss meadows are full of 

 surprises, and we are at one moment full of rapture 

 over a new Pedicularis, or at another lost in 

 admiration as we gaze at an Anemone or Lily for the 

 first time. 



