no ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. 



one of the best of all spring flowers, Erica carnea, is never found 

 wild in England, though a close ally oScurs freely in one part 

 of the West of Ireland, as does the beautiful Menziesia polifolia 

 or St. Dabeoc's Heath. Of course this charming dwarf spring 

 Heath, E. carnea, would grow as well in any peaty waste as on 

 its native mountains, and prove a plant of no ordinary attrac- 

 tion. It is sold cheaply, by the dozen or hundred, in nurseries 

 that grow American or peat plants ; and all that would be neces- 

 sary in planting it would be to clear away a portion of the ordinary 

 Heath or weeds of the spot, so that it may have a fair chance of 

 becoming established. It is so particularly neat and pretty in 

 spring that few once acquainted with it will fail to cultivate 

 it freely for the garden or pleasure-ground, as it is admirable for 

 edging beds. 



The ground is rocky, and we think we have taken leave of all 

 the meadow-land, when the hills again begin to break into small 

 pastures, where Orchises, Phyteumas, Arnica, Inula, Harebells, 

 and a host of meadow plants, struggle for the mastery. Soon 

 we come to great isolated masses of erect rock, whose surface 

 is quite shattered and decayed in every part ; and, after half an 

 hour among these, see far up rosettes of the blue flowers of 

 Phyteuvia comosum, projecting about two inches from the rock. 

 The rosettes are as wide as the plant is high, and much larger 

 than the leaves, which are of a light glaucous colour. 



We ascend far above these rocks, and find the mountain-side 

 has broken into wide gentle slopes, park-Hke, with birch and 

 other indigenous trees here and there, but for the most part a great 

 spread of meadow-land, adorned in every part with a glorious 

 company of flowers. Conspicuously beautiful was the St. Bruno's 

 Lily, growing just high enough to show its long and snow-white 

 bells above the grass. It should be called the Lady of the 

 Meadows, for assuredly no sweeter or more graceful flower em- 

 bellishes them. In every part where a slight depression oc- 

 curred, so as to expose a little slope or fall of earth on which 

 the long grass could not well grow, or along by a pathway, 

 Primula integrifolia was found in thousands, long passed out 

 of flower. 



In wandering leisurely over the grass, an exquisite Gentian, of 

 a brilUant deep and iridescent blue, caught my eye. At first I 

 thought it was the fine Gentialia vernaj but on taking up some 

 plants, it proved to be an annual kind, quite as beautiful and 



