Part I. A LITTLE TOUR IN THE ALPS. 8i 



danger of approaching them too closely is somewhat shaded 

 from the unwary — but as yet few of such as are generally 

 termed alpine plants. Many of the most delicate and minute of 

 these would grow well in such a position, but the long and 

 luxuriant grass and low wood would soon overrun and destroy 

 them. The low tree gets a vantage ground on the shattered 

 flanks of the mountain, and retains it. But in such positions we 

 find numbers of beautiful flowers that may be termed sub- 

 alpine, and occasionally plants that are found, of very diminutive 

 size, near the crest of an alp, are here several times larger and 

 taller. The plants that occur in such places should have a pecu- 

 liar interest for all who love gardens, because they flourish in a 

 temperature nearly like that of the greater part of these islands. 

 Every copse, shrubbery, thin wood, or semi-wild spot in pleasure- 

 grounds, throughout the length and breadth of the land, may 

 grow scores of these plants, that now rarely or never find a 

 suitable home in our gardens. 



That fine rock-plant. Genista sagittalis, with curious winged 

 stems and profuse masses of yellow flowers, forms the very turf 

 in some spots. I do not diverge a step from the well-beaten 

 path up which many are going, and therefore botanical rarities 

 do not come in the way, but some things occur in such pro- 

 fusion that tourists can never exterminate them, and soon I 

 meet with grey tufts of that fine rock-plant, the mountain Oxy- 

 tropis, which is here quite plentiful. Although many gather 

 Ferns by the path, there are tufts of Asplenium fontanum here 

 and there on this much frequented mountain, which may with 

 some irreverence be called the Hampstead Heath of Geneva. 

 Nevertheless, the ascent of it is better and more difficult exer- 

 cise than mounting Box Hill, even though a pathway has 

 been made all the way. Dwarf neat bushes of Cytisus sessili- 

 Jolius become very common ; it is well worthy of cultivation, 

 ■ and soon I gather my first truly wild Cyclamen. The Lily- 

 of-the-valley forms a carpet all under the brushwood. The 

 Martagon Lily shoots up here and there among the common 

 Orchids and Grass, and I begin to enjoy, for the second time 

 during the year, the fragrance of the Hawthorn Bush. The 

 Laburnum is mostly past ; but on high precipices, by looking 

 closely, you may yet see bushes of it in flower. The great 

 yellow Gentian begins to be very plentiful everywhere, and 

 Globularia cordifolia is in dense dwarf sheets here and there, 



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