I04 



ALPINE FLOWERS. 



Part I. 



the decayed leaves of the tree ferns and pakns at Kew to re- 

 main on and clpthe their shafts — before always rigidly trimmed. 



Disappointed in finding a rich flora of the small alpine plants 

 in the neighbourhood of Macugnaga, we resolved to descend 

 into the plains of Lombardy, cross the lakes of North Italy, go 

 as far as Lecco on the lake of Como, ascend Monte Campione, 

 and find Silene Elisabethce, a plant as rare as beautiful, and any 

 like subjects which that region might afford. 



The long and ever-varying Val Anzasca, which runs from the 

 foot of Monte Rosa to the great road from the Simplon, is un- 

 surpassed for the grandeur, beauty, and variety of its scenery. 

 We started from the Hotel Monte Moro at about half past three 

 in the morning, when several of the highest peaks were il- 

 lumined by a ruddy light, and all the lower ones were in the 



Fig. 67. — Cascade in a high wood. 



dull grey of daybreak. Almost every step revealed a fresh pros- 

 pect of the mountains. We saw very little of the rare vegetation 

 of the valley, having to hurry on to Milan without diverging 

 from the pathway ; but the beauty of the orange Lily in the grass 

 was something quite remarkable. Not growing higher than the 

 grass, and in single specimens, not tufts, the effect was not what 

 we are accustomed to in Lilies. By looking over a ledge now 

 and then, one of those small alpine meadows, apparently stolen 

 from the vast wilderness, was seen thinly studded with large 

 fully-expanded Lily blooms, every flower relieved by the fresh 

 grass. It was beautiful ! Asplenium septentrionale was ex- 

 tremely abundant. Of flowers we saw but few, for the taller 

 tree vegetation cuts off the view and runs up and clothes 

 the secondary mountains to the very summits,- except where 

 grass that is like velvet spreads out as if it were to show the 



