OF ODD TREASURES 135 



Scheuchzeri, a neat, thrifty thing, about a foot high or so, 

 with round heads of deep blue bottles. The others are 

 similar, but a trifle less distinguished. All these plants 

 are very easy to deal with, and, I think, prefer rather 

 moister treatment than the others, in shady corners of the 

 rock-work. My best Scheuchzeri was collected by me 

 once, without my knowledge, in a clump of Anemone 

 narcisslflora that I consoled myself with one barren 

 dreary afternoon on the Schynige Platte above Inter- 

 laken. It was already late autumn, and everything was 

 over, and all the mountain-panorama was cold and cloudy 

 and grey. But I saw the Anemone's leaves, and made 

 good the lost day by grubbing him up. And when the 

 clump was well-established in the old garden, lo and 

 behold, it consisted not only of the Anemone but also of 

 Phyteuma Scheuchzeri, Geranium sylvaticum, and the 

 little Snow-Crocus. Now for many years they have been 

 fighting the matter out between them, and I am inclined 

 to put my money on the Phyteuma, which seems to be 

 crowding the others out one by one. The Geranium will 

 very likely go soon ; the Crocus, I believe, has gone ; the 

 Anemone shall never go, if I have to redress the balance 

 of the world by making an artificial clearing in the midst 

 of the Phyteuma.^ 



As for Phyteuma orhiculare, his round heads of deep 

 blue on their tall stems may be seen here and there in 

 our south - country meadows. On the Rufl' above 

 Abinger, for instance, he grows all over the place — nor 

 need one have any scruple about saying so, for, first of all, 

 the plant abounds there, and, in the second, the man, nor 

 the million men, have not yet been born, who could 

 eradicate a flourishing Phyteuma. Such a silly name to 



' Latest news : The Phyteuma has abruptly, irrelevantly expired, like 

 Salammbo, in the very hour of victory : the Geranium and the Anemone 

 now have to fight an internecine duel. 



