232 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



Silenes, except palaestina, have too much chalk and 

 magenta in their tones ever to please me. My prime 

 favourite is the white-starred, dainty alpestris. 



Meanwhile, as we mount by the stream, over ribbed 

 rocks, and gradually thinning herbage, the beauties of 

 the upmost levels throng thick. These are the very 

 aKriparoi Xei/iu)ve<} of Hippolytos : purity is the dew that 

 waters them, and the high Gods walk here, for all who 

 choose to see. Against the grey stone shine in contrast 

 the gold-and-violet suns of Aster alpinus amid the silver 

 stars of Edelweiss. Like a dingy caricature of the Aster 

 appears Erigeron alpinus, and the grass is dotted with 

 the deep, brown-crimson spikelets of Nigritella angusti- 

 folia, delicious little Orchis, which is filled with the most 

 rich and penetrating fragrance of Vanilla. This, though 

 I have oft collected it, I have never been able, worse luck, 

 to get established. Down by the bed of the stream itself 

 are the children of the bog. Saxifraga aeizoeides and the 

 two Campanulas have been left far below, and their place 

 is filled by the blues of Gentiana bavarica ; the lighter, 

 clearer colour of Myosotis rupicola ; the startling white- 

 ness, against glossy green, of Ranunculus alpestris, grow- 

 ing every minute more abundant; and the soft lilac of 

 Soldanella with the rosy pinks of Primula farinosa. All 

 these, of course, are for moist or marshy comers of your 

 bog, with the exception of Myosotis alpestris and its 

 variety, rupicola, which endure far heavier damp on the 

 well-drained Alps than ever they will in cultivation ; 

 where, on the contrary, though alpestris is an easy border 

 plant, the much more lovely, delicate, and capricious 

 rupicola requires very perfect drainage and protection 

 from excessive moisture if you are to make it a sound 

 perennial. For the bog, however, you may, of course, 

 use cautiously our own brilliant native palustris, in some 

 of its newer improved varieties, which never look better 



