CHAPTER V 



FLOWER-BEDS 

 " / know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows." 



BEFORE attempting to describe our flowers 

 in detail, it will be well to say a word or 

 two on the climate of the island. You 

 must bear in mind that the region in which these 

 flowers are growing is quite far north, and is 

 moreover in a mountainous country, some seven- 

 teen hundred feet above the level of the sea. 

 The summers are short, the jce never leaving 

 the lake before the ist of May, and often 

 covering the water as late as the 22nd, while 

 the remains of snowdrifts are often to be found 

 in June. I have known several inches of snow 

 to fall on the 20th of May, though it rapidly 

 disappeared. The leaves on the trees begin to 

 glow with their brilliant fall tints as early as the 

 middle of September, and a month later the trees 

 are quite bare. Snow is apt to come early, and 

 when it once begins, the ground generally re- 



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