In My Vicarage Garden 



everybody. One I saw only in the wood through 

 which the queer funicular railway runs from 

 Lauterbrunnen to Murren, and it had the appear- 

 ance of long sprays of delicate white feathers 

 covering a largish tract amongst the bushes. 

 They were most beautiful, yet they were only 

 our large willow-herb in seed. It is not un- 

 common in England, and abounds in some of 

 the valleys of the Cotswold, but I never saw it in 

 such a beautiful state before, though I am told it 

 is as beautiful in some parts of Surrey. The 

 other plant was the dwarf thistle (C. acaulis), 

 which when in flower is simply a purple dwarf 

 thistle of no special beauty, but when the flower 

 is over it is most beautiful. The involucre lies 

 flat upon the grass, a bright, many-rayed star 

 (three or four inches in diameter), with a 

 sheen like burnished silver, and I was not 

 surprised to see that many visitors, especially 

 ladies, picked it in quantity and admired it, 

 though only a thistle. It is often compared to 

 the Edelweiss, but in my eyes it is far more 

 beautiful, for I could never very much admire the 

 Edelweiss, which has always seemed to me some- 

 thing of an impostor that has won for itself a high 

 reputation under false pretences. Its chief claim 

 was the sentimental one that it was so difficult to 

 find that each Swiss youth risked his life to find 

 it and present it to his sweetheart as a proof of 

 his manly prowess ; it is now known to grow in 

 many places where any boy or girl can reach it 

 184 



