296 NOTES FROM THE JOURNAL OF A BOTANIST IN EUROPE. 
ever, for the guides to wear a sprig in their hats, it gives them — 
such a decided alpine look and, then, it is so romantic. Every — 
one has heard about the chamois hunters who imperil their lives in 
gathering the Edelweiss growing about half-way up steep preci- 
pices, nobody knows . how many thousand feet high, all for the 
sake of some beauteous maiden. At present, maidens of the above — 
class have probably retired to the remotest valleys; at any rate, a 
they are not met with in Grindelwald. But Edelweiss may be had e 
without great risk of life or limb; for while crossing the Simplon — 
I had only to step out of the diligence to pick specimens of it : 
growing on some rocks near the road. But, to return to our path E 
to the mer de glace —along the lower portion a most beautiful 
effect is produced by the quantities of Phalangium ramosum Lam. — 
and Astrantia major L., growing together, the latter proving that 
even an umbellifer can be beautiful. Above, on the mountain, 
Aconitum Napellus and A. lycoctonum, with numerous Caryophyl- 
laceæ, attract the attention of the traveller. Far 
No one who is so fortunate as to be in Grindelwald in July, On 
the beginning of August, should fail to ascend the Faulhorn. 
emerging from the forest, uninteresting, except from a few Camp- 
anulæ, to all but lichenologists, one finds in abundance the bom z 
tiful alpine rose, Rhododendron ferrugineum L., which the ladies 
are so fond of fastening in bunches to the ends of their alpen = 
stocks ; and, growing with it in abundance, but flowering a little 
later, the odd Gentiana punctata L. After passing the chilet, te 
really alpine flora is first seen in a meadow blue with Gentiana 
Bavarica and G. verna mixed with Androsace, while the most 
beautiful G. acaulis occurs farther on. Every step discloses a 
beauties, the fragrant Nigritella angustifolia, Viole, Primule, Den 
perviva, Saxifrage and composites without end, till the climax i8 
reached at a little knoll not far from a small black looking ee 
_ just under the snow fields, which is covered with Soldanella minim 
Hoppe. The nodding of the beautiful little purple-blue corollas, 
the distant tinkling of hundreds of bells from a large herd in the 
alp below, the bare black rocks and snow ahead, and behind ei : 
magnificent mass of the Wetterhorn, from which one hears eee 
avalanches, all form a picture which no one is likely to toren 
The proper time for seeing the alpine flowers is from the oR 
of July till the middle of August, better however in July. pe” 
who arrive late in August, as do most of the Americans, will seat 
