ALPINES AT HOME IN SWITZERLAND. 41 



May Lily, and the white Mountain Avens are also in 

 evidence, brightening the forest glades. 



And then there are the Orchises, the curious coral- 

 root, the tiny heart-leaved Twayblade, and, greatest 

 prize of all, the lady's-slipper — Cypripedium Calceolus. 

 What a moment was that when our eyes wandered 

 from the clump of May Lily, which surrounded a mossy 

 stump, to a sunny dell some thirty yards below, where 

 a colony of the Cypripediums were growing. The plants 

 looked as though they must have strayed from a 

 tropical forest, as though they had left their home 

 amongst the palms and the giants of the new world, 

 with their festoons of creepers and their long lianas, 

 and sought the quieter life of a mountain pine wood. 

 We picked two or three blooms, carefully safe-guarding 

 the roots, and as we held them in our hands we 

 thought that never should we handle more lovely 

 flowers. 



Meantime the track has been steadily ascending, 

 and now comes the sound of a roaring torrent. We 

 cross this by means of a loosely-made bridge, and are 

 soon beyond the Pines. The second stage of our 

 cHmb has commenced, and for the next hour we 

 traverse the Alpine pastures. There is not the luxuri- 

 ance of the lower meadows in these higher pastures, 

 but the herbage though short is dense, and the cattle 

 feeding in them look weU cared for. 



We press on up the green slopes, stooping to pick an 

 unusually fine head of Bird's-eye Primrose or some of 

 the mountain Violets which are almost large enough 

 for garden Pansies. The hillside becomes steeper, 



