In Wild Swiss Gardens 



without difficulty. Then it was said to be impos- 

 sible to grow it away from its native mountains ; 

 it is now found to be easily grown in England, if 

 raised from seed. It is claimed, too, to be a flower 

 of supreme beauty ; but the white star, which 

 forms its chief attraction, is not a flower at all, but 

 the involucre which surrounds a number of small 

 insignificant flowers, and it is not a pure white, 

 but in colour, as in texture, it looks like a piece 

 of rather dirty white felt. So, altogether, I prefer 

 the dwarf thistle in seed ; and if anyone will take 

 the trouble to pull this to pieces and examine it 

 under a moderate lens he will see that each 

 pappus is a lovely little parachute, of which each 

 hair is a perfect feather of the finest silk. And 

 before leaving the fruits I must mention one 

 more which much interested me, our groomwell 

 {Lithospermum), which I found in some of the 

 woods in great abundance. The interest lay in 

 this, that much of the shagreen from which our 

 grandmothers' spectacle and etui cases were made 

 was a manufactured article from asses' skin, into 

 which were pressed hard seeds chiefly of the 

 Lithosperinum. As this is rather a rare plant in 

 England, I never could understand where the 

 supply of seeds came from ; but now having seen 

 it in such abundance in the woods of Switzerland, 

 I can well fancy that the supply may have come 

 from thence. 



I need not say anything about the ferns ; their 

 beauty is to a large extent independent of the 

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