78 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. 



Fig. S3. — " Excelsior ! '' 



A LITTLE TOUR IN THE ALPS. 



As this book niay prove of some use as a guide, not only to 

 those who have visited or are familiar with the countries in 

 which' alpine plants abound, but to many who have no oppor^ 

 tunities of seeing them in a wild state, \ have thought it worth 

 while to include a few notes of my first short excursion in a 

 eally alpine country. It may serve to give some notion of such 

 I region to those who have no better means of becoming ac- 

 jjuainted with it. Zest is certainly added to the knowledge of 

 our tiny mountain gems if they are associated in our minds 

 with ideas or remembrances of their beautiful and often awful 

 native haunts. It relates no exciting accounts of attempts to 

 mount any peaks that happen to be a few hundred feet higher 

 than those of comparatively easy access. It only deals, in pass- 

 ing, with one of the few texts that one may read in the great 

 book of the Alps. Therefore, all critics accustomed to books of 

 sensational adventure, owners of Murray's guides, travelled per- 

 sons generally, and, above all, the " general reader," in quest of 

 excitement, are fairly warned that they will find it as empty as 

 Sir Charles Coldstream found the crater of Vesuvius. 



The first day's work shall be devoted to the ascent of the 

 Grande Salfeve, which, though not a great mountain, and with 



