Part I. A LITTLE TOUR IN THE ALPS. Ill 



brilliant as either G. bavarica or G. verna, gems as they are. 

 Wherever a boulder or mass of rock showed itself, Primula 

 Auricula was seen, often in the grass, and always on the high 

 rocks and cliffs. A species of Pedicularis, with deep rosy shining 

 flowers, is a fine ornament, and ascends to the very highest 

 points. A showy Epilobium and Dentaria are also seen among 

 the taller vegetation, while the compact little blue Globularia 

 creeps from the surrounding earth over every rock. As we mount, 

 the mist of the higher points begins to envelope us, and hide the 

 lovely and ever-varying scenery below and on all sides, except 

 now and then when the breeze clears the vapours away. 



As the upper lawns are reached, the extraordinary nature of 

 the mountain begins to be seen through the increasing mist. 

 Lower down, and indeed in all parts, erect, isolated masses of 

 rock are met with ; but towards the great straight-sided mass 

 that forms the central and higher peak, huge aiguilles are 

 gathered together so thickly that, dimly seen through the mist, 

 they seem like the ghosts of tall old castles and towers creeping 

 one after the other up the mountain-side. The highest point, 

 formed by a most imposing rock of this description, has never yet 

 been ascended. Lower down cliffs of the same nature and great 

 height form one side of the mountain, their giant and weird appear- 

 ance, when we saw them, being much heightened by the mist 

 which completely hid the valley and made them seem baseless. 



Hereabouts we came upon some little tufts of the most dimi- 

 nutive and pretty Saxifraga ccEsia. In little indentations in 

 rocks it sometimes looked a mere stain of silvery grey like a 

 Lichen ; on the ground, it spread into dwarf silvery cushions, 

 from one to three or four inches wide. It seemed quite indif- 

 ferent as to position, sometimes growing freely along, and even 

 in, a channel the sides and bed of which are a mass of shattered 

 rocks, and which is in winter a stream and a torrent after heavy 

 rains and thaws. I found one plant as circular and as wide as 

 a dessert plate, a mass of Lilliputian silvery rosettes, each about 

 the eighth of an inch across, each rosette being formed of from 

 fifteen to twenty-five diminutive leaves, and hundreds of rosettes 

 going to form a tuft about an inch high. 



This is one of the brightest little gems in the large Saxifrage 

 family, which affords a greater number of distinct plants worthy 

 of cultivation in the rock-garden than any other at present 

 known to us. These plants grow upon the mountain tops far 



