THE HERB PARIS 21 



cap. A very strange and uncanny-looking lily, which I 

 had never seen before, turned up near Kandersteg, at the 

 Blue Lake, beloved of Mr. H. G. Wells. This is "the Herb 

 Paris." It has four narrow out-stretched green sepals, 

 and four still narrower green petals, eight large stamens, 

 and a purple seed capsule. Its broad oval leaves are also 

 arranged in whorls of four. Its name has nothing to do 

 with the " ville lumifere," nor with the Trojan judge of 

 female beauty, but refers to the symmetry and "parity" 

 of its component parts. I was not surprised to find that 

 " the Herb Paris " is poisonous, and was anciently used in 

 medicine. It looks weird and deadly. 



Marmots, glacier fleas (spring-tails, not true fleas), 

 admirable trout, and burbot (the fresh-water cod, called 

 " lote " in French), outrageous wood-gnats, which English 

 people call by a Portuguese name as soon as they are on 

 the Continent, and singing birds (usually one is too late 

 in the season to hear them) were our zoological accom- 

 paniment. There were singularly few butterflies or other 

 insects, probably in consequence of the previous wet 

 weather. 



July, 191a 



